US Is About to Do Something so MASSIVE to Iran… It Will Go Down in History

Iran didn't listen. The US warned it over and over again that something massive was coming if Iran didn't get in line. Now that something massive is about to happen. A historic US armada is amassing around Iran as the US has pulled out an unprecedented carrier deployment. Iran is about to be hit hard and it feels like war is imminent. And if war happens, the US has a plan to ensure it comes out on top. We'll come to that plan later in the video. First, the naval deployment.

On February 12th, the New York Times reported that the US is sending the aircraft carrier the USS Gerald R. Ford, along with its escort ships from the Caribbean and into the Middle East. This isn't going to be a short stay. The outlet says that the US isn't anticipating receiving the USS Gerald R. Ford back in its home port until at least April and potentially even May, because the ship is going to be joining another, the USS Abraham Lincoln.

If that carrier sounds familiar, it's because the US sent it, along with its carrier strike group, to the Persian Gulf a few weeks back as part of a pressure campaign on Iran's ruling regime. That campaign is ramping up, and the US is sending a message by deploying the USS Gerald R. Ford. That message is twofold. Here comes power combined with experience. As the Military Times notes, the USS Gerald R. Ford was the very carrier that took part in America's surprise January raid on

Venezuela that resulted in the capture of the country's former president and, many would say, dictator, Nicolas Maduro. That raises the possibility that aircraft operating from this very carrier were the ones that carried out the shock and awe strikes on Venezuela that opened the door for Maduro's capture, which has to worry Iran. The carrier's crew, along with all of the crews of its escorts, has been in combat recently.

They're honed. They're honed, they're ready, they'll know exactly what to do if the US gives the order to strike. And that brings us to the power front, which is what will terrify Iran's regime even more than the experience that the USS Gerald R. Ford's crew brings to the table. Max Afterburner offers a rundown of the firepower that the USS Gerald R. Ford brings to a fight in his video covering America's latest move. There are no F-35s on the carrier, after Berner says, there doesn't need to be. The USS Abraham Lincoln has enough of them.

But what the USS Gerald R. Ford offers are F-18s and E-18G Growlers, which offer a heady mix of strike airframes and electronic warfare aircraft, the latter of which will be key to countering Iran's drone saturation strategy, which you'll learn more about in a few minutes. What this all amounts to is a whole lot more air power for the US in a region of the world where it is very actively trying to create change. The capability now, teaming up with the Abraham Lincoln that's actually in the Persian Gulf,

allows for a higher sortie generation rate. It allows for a 33% more sortie generation, which means more aircraft blasting off the deck of the USS Ford, after Bernis's. In short, the USS Abraham Lincoln would likely take the lead in an initial series of airstrikes against Iran, but it's the USS Gerald R. Ford that will be vital to turning a shock

and awe campaign into a sustained war effort designed to cripple everything, from Iran's air defenses to its military command. The BBC says that this extra carrier deployment may prove vital. Though initial thought suggests that the US is preparing something similar for Iran that it carried out in Venezuela, there are mitigating factors. Iran's military is much stronger than Venezuela's ever was. The US also has to consider the concerns of its Middle Eastern allies such as Qatar, Jordan, Israel and Bahrain, all of which are part of a network of agreements

that the US has formed, and all of which are concerned about Iranian retaliation. So the arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford in the Persian Gulf is essentially the US doubling its firepower for a fight that it will want to be over as quickly as possible. The US may not get that particular wish. Before we get to that and the shocking strike plan that the US has developed, we need to look at why the US has made a move that suggests that war is imminent with Iran. The answer

is simple. Consequences. The US and Iran have been engaged in negotiations over a nuclear deal that the US is trying to put in place to curb the Iranian regime's attempts to produce nuclear weapons. US President Donald Trump even warned Iran on February 12th that it would face America's wrath if it refused to make a deal. "'We have to make a deal. Otherwise it's going to be very traumatic, very traumatic. I don't want that to happen, but we have to make a deal,' France 24 reports the US President as saying before he reiterated. This will be very traumatic for Iran if they

don't make a deal." At the time, the outlet reported that Trump was considering sending a second aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf if things didn't progress as quickly as he wanted them to. Clearly, the time has come. And what comes next is something that Trump has described as Phase 2. The US is also laying the groundwork for this phase, which appears to be an attack on Iran. On February 15th, the Times of Israel reported Trump has told Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he will have America's support if he decides to strike Iran in the wake of talks between

the US and Iran failing. Netanyahu is skeptical about any chance of a deal being made, or perhaps more accurately, of Iran's regime sticking to such a deal. I will not hide it from you that I express my skepticism of any deal with Iran, because frankly Iran is reliable on one thing, that they lie and they cheat," the Israeli Prime Minister told an audience of delegates at the recent conference of presidents of major American Jewish organizations. So it looks like Israel is raring to go.

The US is approaching the same position. That's because as we mentioned, there are consequences to the Iranian regime's actions, and right now, those actions seem to indicate that whatever is happening during the nuclear talks isn't getting through. After all, Iran is still building ballistic missiles that would likely be capable of carrying nuclear warheads should the country actually manage to develop them. Afterburner says that Iran's ballistic missile program has been taken to a whole new level

while the talks have been happening, and it's reached the point where up to 2,000 ballistic missiles have been produced. The New York Times adds to this with a February 6th report, which notes that satellite imagery shows that Iran has rapidly repaired some of the ballistic missile facilities that the US damaged during Operation Midnight Hammer in 2025, suggesting that it's gearing up to be able to use those facilities again in the future. These aren't the actions of a country that is taking nuclear talks seriously and the

US has taken notice. The uneven pace of reconstruction offers clues about Iran's military priorities as the United States amasses forces near it and President Trump weighs new military action. The New York Times says, adding, "...if the United States were to attack, Iran would most likely retaliate with ballistic missiles targeting Israel and US assets in the region." Iran isn't just being defiant on the nuclear front. There's also its response to the protests

that called for regime change which rocked the country from late 2025 and have been shut down brutally by Ali Khamenei and his fanatical cronies. You may remember that Trump initially threatened to retaliate against Iran if its regime killed anybody in the protests. Trump warned of very strong action if Iran executed any prisoners. The BBC reported on January 14th, which was a threat that came at a time when it was believed that Khamenei's regime had already killed over 2,400 people. Sadly, the number is much higher now. According to Iran International, documents that have been

reviewed by the outlet's editorial board have revealed that more than 36,500 Iranians were killed when Khamenei's regime began its crackdown on January 8th and into 9th. Keep in mind that this was before Trump made his threat, and it reveals that more than 15 times more protesters have been killed than initially thought up to January 14th. This is defiance of the US threat on a grand scale, and it's likely that many more have been killed since. It looks to me like daring the US to strike with all the rhetoric coming out of Iran,

after Berna says when commenting on Khamenei's crushing of the protests that threatened to lead to his overthrow. That response will be on the collective US mind, along with the nuclear defiance. Plus Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGCC isn't helping matters. If you want to talk defiance, a short clip shared by India Eye News on X shows what that looks like. Amassed on what appears to be a converted container ship, members of the IRGC chant

death to America in what seems to be an attempt to show that they're ready to fight. Is this theatre? A serious call to war? Something in between? It's difficult to tell, though the IRGC seems to be trying to showcase its possession of a large ship, as highlighted by an aerial view of its members marching around on deck, chanting in unison. Messages are being sent by Iran that it won't back down. The US has responded by sending a second carrier into the Persian Gulf.

Now, before we get into what those carriers will do when a fight kicks off, you may be wondering why the US needs two of these massive aircraft-laden warships. Iran doesn't have anything that compares on the naval front, but there is a good reason why the USS Gerald R. Ford is joining the USS Abraham Lincoln, and it's not just about increasing America's attacking threat. It's about ensuring that Iran can't do much damage. Afterburner says that Iran will likely try to deploy the asymmetric playbook if it ends

up at war with the US. The country still has layered and integrated air defences, which include S-300 and S-400 batteries purchased from Russia. Iran produces a huge number of Shaheed attack drones, along with decoys, all of which it will use to try to confuse the defences of the carriers that host the aircraft the US will use to strike. Electronic warfare jamming equipment is also in Iran's arsenal, as are, potentially,

weapons that it might be able to use to intercept fourth-generation fighter jets like the F-18s that the USS Gerald R. Ford brings to the table, as WIO News also points out. Iran will try to use its asymmetric tactics to deny access to US warships, particularly in narrow bodies of water such as the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran partially controls. Add proxies such as the Houthis and their drone swarms, along with proxy fighters operating fast boats as distractions and we get a strategy that is difficult for a single carrier and its strike escort to contain, but a lot easier to handle when there are two carriers in the Persian

Gulf. Iran will be forced to split its resources. That leads to one of two situations. Either Iran focuses everything that it has on one carrier, leaving the other free to strike, or it goes half and half with its asymmetric attack, which makes it easier for the US carriers to defend and then launch their strikes. Iran believes that it has a carrier killer strategy, even though it has no warships that come anywhere near to matching the power of a single carrier and its escorts. The US has to be wary of this asymmetrical approach, as overconfidence can destroy a war effort

in a heartbeat. With two carriers, the US is letting Iran know that it's going to hit hard and fast, while defending against what it knows Iran's response will be. And with that we come to something that we've mentioned several times already during the video, America's shocking strike plans. There will be another element of shock and awe to these plans as we saw during Operation Midnight Hammer, which was supposed to shatter Iran's nuclear ambitions.

But perhaps the most surprising thing about the US strike plan is that the country is preparing for a multi-week campaign against Iran, which also suggests that it's ready to dismantle the country's entire regime if it has to. Reuters reported on this aspect of the plan on February 13th, noting that two unnamed US officials had told the outlet what comes next for Iran

would be a far more serious conflict with the US than anything that has been seen before. This won't be a one-off attack like Operation Midnight Hammer was. The presence of two carriers in the Persian Gulf is a hint that the US will look to carry out a sustained operation. The planning for this operation is far more complex, the US officials told Reuters, and

it would involve the attacking of Iran's security and state facilities, in addition to more strikes against the country's security infrastructure. What does seem unlikely is that the US will try something similar to what it pulled off in Venezuela. Modern diplomacy suggests that Trump is generally opposed to the idea of sending ground troops into Iran, though the White House has also said that Trump is considering all of the options. So there's a vague, though unlikely, possibility of ground forces heading into Iran. But what is certain to happen, at least during the initial few weeks, is a carrier-based

series of strikes designed to completely wreck Iran's key military infrastructure and the regime's soldiers that use it. Mack's Afterburner suggests the US has everything it needs with the USS Gerald R. Ford and the USS Abraham Lincoln to achieve its goals. And this is what the war could look like, according to Afterburner. The start of the show, as he puts it, would be the F-35s housed on the USS Abraham Lincoln. These fifth-generation fighters, which are stealthy and have a top speed of Mach 1.6,

were custom-made to carry out deep strikes on hardened targets, including those protected by air defenses that could potentially detect other American airframes. Iran's underground nuclear sites would be obvious targets, as they were during Operation Midnight Hammer. The F-35s will be backed up by the USS Gerald R. Ford's F-18s. These multi-role fighters are capable of missile and bombing campaigns themselves, so they're more visible to air defenses.

More likely is that they will carry out close air support, perhaps on bombing runs involving F-35s, and they may even offer communications for special operations teams on the ground, should the US choose to deploy such teams. Add 500-pound bombs and anti-drone rockets into the mix and you get a deadly combination of attacking and defensive force from the F-18s. With two carriers, the US could launch sorties over and over, after Bernayssehs. So what we'd likely see is F-35s taking out layers of Iran's air defenses, which then opens up corridors for F-18s to exploit later on.

Throw Tomahawk cruise missiles into the mix, which afterburner says can be launched from the warships and the strike groups that accompany the two US carriers, and you get a lot of firepower that will be difficult for Iran to contend with. The US also has surveillance capabilities due to E-2D Hawkeyes on its carriers. These aircraft carry the world's most advanced airborne radars, according to the US Naval Air Systems Command, which means they can help coordinate the strikes that the F-35s and, later, the F-18s carry out. Hawkeyes would also be valuable as defensive tools,

especially when combined with the Growlers we mentioned earlier. So let's say that the E-2D Hawkeye picks up a swarm, 30 fast boats and 60 low-flying drones coming at 50 miles per hour from multiple different directions, trying to surround these different carriers, after Berner hypothesizes. And they're trying to overwhelm the escorts as well. So at this point, airborne growlers would light up the entire swarm with their jamming, basically trying to strike all of these drones down. Two carrier groups add up to a comprehensive US war plan. Of course,

Iran would try to respond. Beyond the drone swarms and other asymmetric tactics that it uses against the carriers, Iran would also try to strike US bases in the Middle East countries we mentioned earlier. Afterburner points out that the IRGC has already threatened to strike these bases, and the US has to take that threat seriously. The Hill reports that Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Aragchi, made the same threat during an interview with Al Jazeera in early February, where he said,

In my view, this is very clear. The US attacks us. It is evident that we don't have the ability and access to attack US territory and therefore have to attack or retaliate to US bases in the region, and unfortunately, US bases are spread all over the region. The problem for Iran's approach here is twofold. First, as Afterburner points out, the US bases in question all have defences. Granted, Iran could still hit them, especially if it deploys missile and drone swarms. But every drone sent to a base is a drone that isn't attacking a US carrier in the Persian Gulf.

Again, it's the splitting of resources that we talked about. Second, the one advantage that Iran has had when using ballistic missile volleys in the past, such as it has against Israel, is that it can launch those volleys from a distance and with impunity. In the case of the US bases, Iran doesn't have that option. Yes, Iran could hit the bases, but with America's two carriers on their doorstep, any strike like that would prompt an immediate response from the US that is likely to do far more

damage to Iran than Iran can do to the bases. For all of its bluster, Iran is in a very bad position right now. The country's regime knows it, even if it won't say it, and we're starting to get hints that Iran is quietly trying to stop a war that seems imminent. Iran knows that the arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford into the Persian Gulf gives the US leverage, as it means America will have more than enough firepower and position to carry out Trump's threats if it sees fit. Trump is playing up that leverage too, as he recently said that it

seems like that would be the best thing that could happen when asked if he wants to see regime change in Iran. It's notable that all of this is coming to a head on the eve of more nuclear talks that are set to take place on February 17th. US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Whitkoff will take part in those talks, which take place in Geneva, and it still seems to be the US desire to reach a deal, even if that's very hard to do, per US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. However, this is where the subtle signal from Iran comes into play. In a February 15th report, the BBC said that Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister, Majid Taq

Ravanchi, claimed that the ball is in America's court to prove that they want to make a deal, adding that, if they are sincere, I'm sure we will be on the road to an agreement. Are those more lies from Iran's regime, or are they a signal that the USS Gerald R. Ford being en route has had the desired effect? We'll find out on February 17th. Iran better hope that a deal is made. The alternative seems to be the complete destruction of the country's regime at the hands of

the US if it isn't. And oddly, the US war plan has a strange link to Vladimir Putin and his desire for absolute power. You can find out more about what a war in Iran would mean for Putin in our video. And if you enjoyed this video, make sure you're subscribed to the Military Show to catch whatever And if you enjoyed this video, make sure you're subscribed to the Military Show to catch whatever

comes next as tensions reach boiling point between the US and Iran.