would be pretty cool if iran sunk the carrier that's on the way.. and even before it arrives in the area of battle.
but hey, one can dream, bitches. either way, i don't like mullahs as people or as a hair style including the orange one.
Trump’s armada faces Iran’s new China-fuelled missilesTehran’s rebuilding of its strike capability since last year’s Israel-Iran war means any US attack would be fraught with risk
Adrian Blomfield Senior Foreign Correspondent. Akhtar Makoii
23 January 2026 7:02pm GMT
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Donald Trump is sending more military hardware, including fighter jets, to the Middle East Credit: US Air Force/Staff Sgt Aaron Allmon
The mullahs have declared victory. Their thuggish Basij militiamen have retreated to their lairs. Municipal workers are scrubbing the blood from Tehran’s pavements.
Yet even as Iran’s protesters abandon hope of US deliverance, evidence is mounting that Donald Trump may still be preparing to strike the country.
Naval assets are moving into position. The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its strike group, steaming towards the Arabian Sea from the Far East, have gone dark after ceasing to broadcast tracking data. A second carrier strike group has reportedly entered the Mediterranean, while a third is heading east across the Atlantic.
The build-up is not just confined to the seas. Online flight-monitoring data indicate that a large number of US F-15 fighter jets normally stationed at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk have redeployed to Jordan.
Three weeks after Mr Trump promised protesters that US forces were “locked and loaded” and would “come to their rescue”, the help he pledged may finally be on its way.
For those who heeded his call to stay on the streets during the bloodiest uprising since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979, that help will feel too late. There are no protesters left to rescue. They are dead, maimed, imprisoned or sitting defeated in their homes.
Rights groups estimate several thousand people have been killed and more than 26,000 arrested. Many activists say those who risked their lives feel betrayed by Mr Trump, who urged them to “KEEP PROTESTING” in an all-caps Truth Social post.
Iran has been waiting for the US to make the first move before pulling its trigger, having slowly rebuilt its arsenal after June’s 12-day war. Chemicals imported from China could fuel up to 500 ballistic missiles, intelligence analysts believe.
Mr Trump was reportedly on the cusp of ordering strikes last week before backing away at the last moment, arguing that the regime had heeded his warnings by cancelling plans to hang hundreds of detainees arrested during the unrest.
Diplomats and analysts say it is more likely he yielded to pressure from Gulf states fearful of Iranian missile retaliation against US bases on their territory, and from Israel, which judged that it lacked sufficient air defences to withstand a sustained Iranian assault.
Many assumed the moment for military action had closed, particularly after the US president turned his attention to Greenland. Yet in recent days he has pressed aides to present him with options that would have a “decisive” effect in Iran, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is making its way to the Middle East from the Far East Credit: Shutterstock
What “decisive” means remains unclear. Options reportedly range from limited strikes on Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities to a prolonged campaign aimed at crippling the regime.
Mr Trump may be bluffing, staging a show of might intended to coerce Tehran into abandoning its nuclear and ballistic missiles programme. But there are reasons to believe he may be serious. Toppling the regime, or forcing out its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would dwarf even the seizure of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.
He may also fear that failing to act after issuing explicit threats would damage his credibility. Barack Obama’s failure to enforce his “red line” – the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime – in Syria in 2013 remains a cautionary tale the current US president has repeatedly cited.
“Trump fears that if he does nothing he opens himself up to charges of weakness,” said a Western diplomat. “That is something he wants to avoid.”
Donald Trump could open himself up to charges of weakness if he doesn’t strike Iran Credit: Shutterstock/Laurent Gillieron
Others argue that Mr Trump’s hesitation has been driven less by politics than by military realities. Gregory Brew, an Iran expert at the Eurasia Group in New York, says that while the US had ample offensive firepower in the region it initially lacked sufficient defences to protect regional bases and Israel from retaliation.
Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June degraded but did not eliminate Tehran’s missile capability. Medium-range systems were hit, but Iran’s vast arsenal of short-range ballistic missiles – the weapons most capable of striking US and Gulf targets – remained largely intact.
Those concerns are now being addressed. Patriot and Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (Thaad) air-defence systems have reportedly been deployed at Al Udeid, a US military base in Qatar, and elsewhere in the region. If Israel calculates that its defences have been sufficiently reinforced, it may again support strikes aimed at further eroding Iran’s missile force.
“The US is clearly preparing both to use force and to absorb Iranian retaliation,” Mr Brew said. “So I think it’s definitely a possibility. Whether it acts depends on what it wants to achieve. I think the administration has determined it has the will to strike Iran. Now it’s trying to determine what the goal would be.”
Any military action would be fraught with risk. Even if bombing were to spark renewed protests – a big assumption given the repression already inflicted – air power alone rarely topples regimes.
It took months of Nato air strikes, combined with a rebel advance, to bring down Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. Iran has no such advancing rebels. And unlike Libya, it retains the capacity to retaliate well beyond its borders.
The regime’s calculus has shifted. Having lost legitimacy and failed to co-opt its population, it has resorted to brute force to survive. That same ferocity could now be turned outward.
The war last June did not eliminate Tehran’s missile capability and Iran remains capable of using brute force internationally Credit: AFP/Atta Kenare
In June last year, weakened by Israel’s dismantling of its proxy network, Iran chose to ration its missile fire and spare its Gulf neighbours, save for a symbolic and well-telegraphed strike on Al Udeid. This time, it may see less reason to hold back.
Despite recent setbacks, Iran retains a formidable missile force. Of the hundreds of missiles launched at Israel in June, dozens penetrated air defences, killing civilians. Even a small breach rate, military analysts say, can have outsized effects.
Since the war, Western intelligence assessments suggest Iran has prioritised rebuilding its missile programme, importing chemical precursors from China to produce solid-fuel propellants. Much of its arsenal survived, hidden in underground facilities built with North Korean assistance, according to Can Kasapoglu of the Hudson Institute, a US think-tank.
Intelligence assessments from last year suggest that Iran imported tonnes of sodium perchlorate to the port at Bandar Abbas. The quantities Iran is alleged to have imported should supply several hundred medium-range ballistic missiles. Maritime intelligence tracking has identified a small fleet of cargo vessels repeatedly plying routes between China and Iran.
Satellite images also suggest the Imam Khomeini Spaceport has been used for missile test launches, with a scorched launchpad indicating thermal exposure.
Having been caught so humiliatingly short in the decapitation strikes last year that killed dozens of top officials in their beds despite Chinese warnings that an Israeli attack was imminent, the first priority for Iran after the war was to step up protection of high-value targets, according to security analysts.
High-ranking officials now rotate through safe houses and switch vehicles. They have been told not to carry mobile phones, according to analysts who have spoken to IRGC sources.
Clearly, major efforts have been made to weed out infiltrators and we witnessed many executions of suspected spies after the war, but it is possible that Israel’s spy ring remains in place. Mike Pompeo, the former US secretary of state and ex-CIA director, and some Israeli officials have admitted that Israeli agitators did play a role in the protests, showing that Israel retains human capability in Iran.
Iran has also been in discussion with China about purchasing the HQ-9B long-range air defence missile system. Despite media reports to the contrary, there is no evidence that China has delivered these to Iran.
Western intelligence assessments suggest Iran has prioritised rebuilding its missile programme Credit: Reuters/Majid Asgaripour
Meanwhile, of the 21 ballistic missile sites struck by Israel last June, 16 have been rebuilt, according to Iranian officials, with repairs at the others continuing.
Senior Iranian officials said missiles and launchers have already been prepared in anticipation of a potential surprise strike by the US.
“Underground missile units have also been on high alert for weeks. If Trump wants to strike for no reason, everything is ready for him,” a senior Iranian official said.
Tehran’s Friday prayer leader Ali Akbari said in response to US threats that “all your interests and bases are clear and precise targets” of Iranian missiles.
“The trillion dollars you have invested in the region is under the watch of our missiles,” Mr Akbari said in his Friday sermon.
While US officials may be assembling a menu of military options, Gulf states remain wary. In their view, Iran no longer poses the existential threat it once did, having been badly weakened by Israel.
That has altered the regional calculus. Arab leaders who once sought to crush Iran now prefer uneasy cohabitation to a war whose consequences they would bear most directly.
Should Iran retaliate in full, the consequences could be devastating – not only for Israel but even more so for nearby states exposed to Iran’s large short-range missile arsenal.
“Missile warfare, in many respects, favours the offence,” Mr Kasapoglu said. “The arithmetic is unforgiving: out of 100 missiles, an 80 per cent interception rate still leaves 20 to penetrate. For smaller states, the margin for error is thinner still.
“This is why Israel and the Gulf Arab states view Iran’s missile programme with such concern. From desalination facilities to hydrocarbon infrastructure, Tehran can impose severe damage even with relatively low breach rates.” |
