The US Navy has announced its biggest deployment in West Asia in decades, with three aircraft carriers, more than 200 aircraft and around 15,000 sailors and Marines now operating in the region amid rising tensions with Iran.US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, addressing a press conference in Washington DC on Friday, described the Iranian regime as “a gang of pirates with a flag”, saying the world increasingly viewed Iran’s actions as those of “criminals on the high seas”.The US Central Command confirmed that, for the first time in decades, three aircraft carriers — USS Abraham Lincoln, USS Gerald R. Ford and USS George H.W. Bush — are operating in the Middle East at the same time.The carrier strike groups together include more than 200 aircraft. Each carrier functions like a floating airfield and can carry between 60 and 90 aircraft, with newer systems capable of launching up to 200 missions a day.Iranian Foreign Minister Sayed Abbas Araghchi struck a defiant note, saying the Strait of Hormuz would remain blocked until $11 trillion in frozen Iranian assets were released.