Did the United States send three aircraft carriers to Iran on March 17, 2025? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the U.S. Navy told Lead Stories that, as of March 18, 2025, there was just one U.S. military ship of this class deployed in the region. As of this writing, the U.S. Department of Defense issued no public statements about "three U.S. aircraft carriers approaching Iran".
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X where it was published on March 17, 2025. It opened:
🚨 Breaking: Three US 🇺🇲 aircraft carriers approaching Iran. Massive FAFO coming soon...
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken in Tue Mar 18 15:58:51 2025 UTC)
On March 18, 2025, a spokesperson for the U.S. Navy told Lead Stories via email:
The USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) is the only U.S. aircraft carrier currently deployed to the region.
A search across Google News for the keywords seen here showed a single source that ran a story about the supposed event on the day of the post's publication, but even that piece did not say the military ships were "approaching Iran":
(Source: Google screenshot taken on Tue Mar 18 16:40:32 2025 UTC)
The article (archived here) cited the Pentagon's announcement implying that the U.S. defense agency issued a public statement about it but offered no links or direct quotes from the Pentagon officials corroborating the supposed development.
Lead Stories searched the Pentagon website but found no evidence the agency released the statement in question.
A search across transcripts published by the U.S. Department of Defense between March 1 and March 18, 2025, for the phrase "three aircraft carriers" showed no matches:
(Source: Defense.gov screenshot taken on Tue Mar 18 17:56:56 2025 UTC)
The same search across the Speeches section on the Pentagon website didn't generate any matches, either:
(Source: Defense.gov screenshot taken on Tue Mar 18 18:01:21 2025 UTC)
At the time of this writing, the press release section (archived here) did not show any statements from the Department of Defense published on March 17, 2025.
The agency's summary page for that day (archived here), when both the post and the article were published, showed no announcements backing up the claim.
What the Pentagon did announce on March 17, 2025, was a series of strikes at Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen (archived here), which had started two days before it.
Lead Stories manually watched a media briefing by Director of Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Lt. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich and Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell at the Pentagon, which was broadcast live on March 17, 2025, but it contained no mention of the supposed movement of three U.S. aircraft carriers.
Yemen and Iran are two different countries separated by both land and water:
(Source: Google Maps screenshot taken on Tue Mar 18 17:10:16 2025 UTC)
At about the 30:00 mark during the same March 17, 2025, press conference, Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell was asked about U.S. plans concerning Iran. He did not offer any specifics and said that "all options are on the table".
Parnell referred to U.S. President Donald Trump's posts on Truth Social. On March 15, 2025 (archived here) his entry mentioned an idea of action against Iran, and on March 17, 2025 (archived here), he said that "IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences" for backing the Houthi forces, but none of the posts announced that the U.S. was sending "three aircraft carriers" to Iran.
The statements from U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (archived here) made on March 16, 2025, discussed Iran but did not elaborate on any specific measures against it.
A Google search across the Pentagon website for the keywords seen here produced no results:
(Source: Google screenshot taken on Tue Mar 18 18:09:12 2025 UTC)
A Google search across the website of the U.S. Navy for the keywords seen here showed nothing corroborating the claim in question:
(Source: Google screenshot taken on Tue Mar 18 18:12:00 2025 UTC)
Lead Stories contacted the Pentagon for additional comments. If we receive a response, this story will be updated as appropriate.
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