The US Central Command said the USS Abraham Lincoln Aircraft Carrier Strike Group, which is equipped with F-35 fighter jets and a destroyer squadron, has arrived in its area of responsibility, Al Jazeera reports.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the carrier strike group to hasten its journey to the Middle East earlier in August as tensions rose in the region as Iran threatened to launch a retaliatory attack against Israel over the assassination of Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

At the time, Austin said the carrier strike group would be adding to the capabilities already provided by the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group.

He also announced the deployment of a guided missile submarine to the region.