The US naval presence around the Middle East is getting a firepower boost. Here are the warships already there and what’s on the way.

The Wasp Amphibious Ready Group deployed in June and is currently operating in the Eastern Mediterranean, which falls under US European Command, or EUCOM.

Its arrival in the region came amid concerns over increasing hostilities between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

The ARG consists of the multipurpose amphibious assault ship USS Wasp and its embarked 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the dock landing ship USS Oak Hill, and the amphibious transport dock USS New York.

Additionally, two destroyers — USS Bulkeley and USS Roosevelt — have been in the area for several weeks.

A third destroyer, USS Laboon, is in port at Souda Bay, a decades-old forward-operating station on the Greek island of Crete. Laboon spent months deployed off the coast of Yemen as part of the US response to Houthi attacks on merchant shipping lanes.

Red Sea

The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group arrived in the CENTCOM region last month to replace the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, which spent months battling the Houthis but has since returned to the US.

The strike group consists of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and four destroyers — specifically USS Michael Murphy, USS John S. McCain, USS Daniel Inouye, and USS Russell — and is operating around the Gulf of Oman.

Warships in transit

Shortly after the back-to-back killings of a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut and Hamas’ politician chief in Tehran two weeks ago that prompted calls for revenge in Iran, the US announced sweeping force posture changes in the Middle East.

The Pentagon directed the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group to replace the Roosevelt and its escort ships in the CENTCOM area of responsibility.

The coming Lincoln strike group consists of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and the destroyers USS Spruance, USS Stockdale, USS Frank E. Petersen, and USS O’Kane.

The strike group is still in the Philippine Sea, so it still has a ways to go before arriving in the Middle East, but Austin has ordered the Lincoln strike group to accelerate its transit to the region, where it’ll add “to the capabilities already provided” by the Roosevelt strike group, the Pentagon has said.

The defense secretary has also directed the guided-missile submarine USS Georgia to the CENTCOM area. The Ohio-class vessel is armed with over 150 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles and was in the Mediterranean Sea as of July 31.

As of Tuesday, the missile submarine had not yet arrived in the CENTCOM region, Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters at a briefing.