The US Navy’s newest supercarrier, USS Gerald R. Ford, has unleashed a blistering barrage on Iranian targets, combining waves of airstrikes with US Marine HIMARS rocket launches in the most aggressive phase yet of the US‑Israel war with Iran, defence officials say.

Sailing in the northern Arabian Sea, the Ford turned into a floating war machine: F‑35C and F/A‑18 jets roared off the deck in rapid succession, striking Iranian radar sites, drone hubs and coastal missile batteries. At the same time, HIMARS launchers flown in by C‑130s and staged at a nearby expeditionary sea base and coastal sites fired salvos of GPS‑guided rockets deep into Iran’s southeastern military corridor.