But Gates denied that the United States was preparing the ground for military strikes against Iran.
"I don’t think we’ll have two carriers for a protracted period of time. So I don’t see it as an escalation. I think it could be seen, though, as a reminder," Gates told reporters here during a visit with Mexican officials.
Earlier a US Navy spokesman said that the arrival in the Gulf this week of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier was part of a "routine regular replacement" for the USS Harry S. Truman.
The overlap of the two would be "very short," said Commander Jeff Davis, and would be "no more than a day or two."
