What IRGC Doing?
Not breaking any blockades, that's for sure
Emmanuel Macron is adorable. He wants to open the Strait of Hormuz with European naval power “after the fighting ends” and cut the US Navy out of the deal. He is holding a meeting today, and “China and India were invited, but it’s unclear if they will attend, a French official said.” France operates the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the world that is not American. Charles de Gaulle carries between 20 and 30 fixed-wing aircraft, mainly Rafale M fighters, with some helicopters and E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft. This is less than half the air power on the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Keir Starmer is also adorable. Dispatched to the region after three weeks of fighting that saw Iran fire missiles at a British base, HMS Dragon got to Cyprus and immediately developed a “minor technical issue” in the onboard water system that has kept her in port ever since. Thanks to decades of budget cuts, the Royal Navy operates just 13 destroyers and frigates with two aircraft carriers. The US Navy currently has that many many vessels in the Hormuz theater today.
HMS Queen Elizabeth is currently undergoing maintenance, while the Prince of Wales carries roughly equivalent combat power to the Charles de Gaulle. The rest of NATO put together is not much stronger than France and Britain put together. Italy’s flagship is the ITS Cavour, a light carrier that shows up to NATO exercises on a regular basis with equivalent firepower to either peer country. The ITS Trieste is a newer amphibious assault ship configured to function as a light carrier, operating 30-34 aircraft.
That completes the entire list of fixed-wing-capable carriers in NATO. Spain operates the ESPS Juan Carlos I, and Turkey has the TCG Anadolu, which are both amphibious assault ships. Spain can launch Harrier jump jets, but not F-35s, at least not yet. Turkey’s carrier primarily operates helicopters and fixed-wing UAVs, such as the Bayraktar TB3, but it does not have any capability to launch fighter jets. So Europeans are adorable when they talk about cutting the Americans out and re-forming NATO without the United States. Just simply adorable, like angry infants raging at the unfairness of the world because it is bedtime.
