The USS George Washington is leaving its mission near Japan to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln which has been deployed to the Middle East and whose crew is apparently straining under the extended deployment there as part of the Iran war.
This means there will be no U.S. aircraft carriers in the Pacific theater right now, at a time when China is showing its arm to the Philippines and Taiwan. Our eleven-carrier fleet means that if two are stationed in the Middle East there will be months when none are available for the Pacific if normal rotations are done.
Some analysts are arguing that this is a big strain on our ability to deter China; others are arguing that China has already invested so much in planning to destroy our Pacific carriers that it hardly factors into their calculations. (Hardly a comforting thought.)
I think the far larger problem is the Iran war’s effect on our munitions stockpiles, and our ability to meet the already existing orders and back orders for Pacific allies like Taiwan, and even Australia.