The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt is leaving the Middle East

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s rare move to keep two Navy aircraft carriers in the Middle East over the past several weeks has now finished, and the Theodore Roosevelt is heading home, according to U.S. officials.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had ordered the TR to extend its deployment for a short time and remain in the region as fellow carrier Abraham Lincoln was pushed to get to the area more quickly.

The Biden administration beefed up the U.S. military presence there last month to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies and to safeguard U.S. troops.

U.S. commanders in the Middle East have long argued that the presence of a U.S. aircraft carrier and the warships accompanying it has been an effective deterrent in the region, particularly for Iran. Since the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip began last fall, there has been a persistent carrier presence in and around the region — and for short periods they have overlapped to have two of the carriers there at the same time.

Prior to last fall, however, it had been years since the U.S. had committed that much warship power to the region.

The decision to bring the Roosevelt home comes as the war in Gaza has dragged on for 11 months, with tens of thousands of people dead, and international efforts to mediate a cease-fire between Israel and the Hamas militant group have repeatedly stalled as they accuse each other of making additional and unacceptable demands.

For a number of months earlier this year the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower remained in the Red Sea, able both to respond to help Israel and to defend commercial and military ships from attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. The carrier, based in Norfolk, Virginia, returned home after a more than eight-month deployment in combat that the Navy said was the most intense since World War II .

U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements, said the San Diego-based Roosevelt and the destroyer Daniel Inouye are expected to be in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s region on Thursday. The other destroyer in the strike group, the Russell, had already left the Middle East and has been operating in the South China Sea.

The Lincoln, which is now in the Gulf of Oman with several other warships, arrived in the Middle East about three weeks ago, allowing it to overlap with the Roosevelt until now.

There also are a number of U.S. ships in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and two destroyers and the guided missile submarine Georgia are in the Red Sea.

华盛顿——据美国官员称，五角大楼过去几周罕见地将两艘海军航空母舰留在中东的举措现已结束，“西奥多·罗斯福”号正在返回美国。

美国国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀下令“罗斯福”号航母延长部署时间，留在该地区，而另一艘航母“亚伯拉罕·林肯”号则被要求更快地抵达该地区。

拜登政府上个月加强了美国在以色列的军事存在，以帮助以色列抵御伊朗及其代理人可能的袭击，并保护美军安全。

美国驻中东指挥官长期以来一直认为，美国航母及其护航​​舰艇的存在对该地区，特别是对伊朗，构成了有效的威慑。自去年秋季以色列与哈马斯在加沙地带爆发战争以来，美军航母在该地区及其周边地区持续部署——有时甚至会出现两艘航母同时在该地区活动的短暂情况。

然而，在去年秋天之前，美国已经多年没有向该地区投入如此多的军舰力量了。

将罗斯福号航母接回以色列之际，加沙战争已持续 11 个月，造成数万人死亡，国际社会为调解以色列和哈马斯武装组织之间的停火所做的努力一再陷入僵局，双方互相指责对方提出更多不可接受的要求。

今年早些时候，德怀特·D·艾森豪威尔号航空母舰在红海驻扎数月，既能响应援助以色列的行动，又能保护商船和军舰免受也门胡塞武装（伊朗支持）的袭击。这艘以弗吉尼亚州诺福克为母港的航母在结束了长达八个多月的作战部署后返回母港。海军称，这是自二战以来最激烈的一次作战行动。

不愿透露姓名的美国官员表示，驻扎在圣地亚哥的“罗斯福”号航母和“丹尼尔·井上”号驱逐舰预计将于周四抵达美国印太司令部辖区。该打击群中的另一艘驱逐舰“拉塞尔”号此前已离开中东，目前正在南海执行任务。

林肯号航母目前与几艘其他军舰一起位于阿曼湾，它大约三周前抵达中东，因此可以与罗斯福号航母重叠航行至今。

此外，东地中海还有许多美国舰艇，红海则有两艘驱逐舰和导弹潜艇“乔治亚”号。