Navy Won’t Replace Vincennes in Gulf With Another of Its Aegis Cruisers

MANAMA, Bahrain — The Navy has decided not to send another of its billion-dollar Aegis cruisers to the Persian Gulf to replace the Vincennes, which shot down an Iranian airliner July 3, officers said Friday.

Lt. Cmdr. Tim Taylor, a spokesman for Mayport Naval Station in Florida, said the departure of the cruiser Mobile Bay “has been temporarily postponed until further notice.”

The Mobile Bay had been scheduled to leave the base Friday to join the U.S. Navy Joint Task Force Middle East, which includes 27 warships in the gulf and Arabian Sea.

Taylor said he could not discuss the reasons, and Maj. Shelley Rogers, a Defense Department spokeswoman in Washington, declined comment on whether the delay is related to the Iran-Iraq cease-fire scheduled for Aug. 20.

Military sources in Bahrain indicated privately that the decision is related to an expected cutback in the size of the U.S. force after a truce in the 8-year-old war but would not be specific.

To Stay Until September

They said the Vincennes is expected to remain in the region until early September, and one said an end to the war would “sharply reduce any need” for the Navy to send another of its most sophisticated warships to the region.

Ships normally serve about three months with the Middle East force, and the Vincennes, which arrived May 22, had been expected to leave for its home port of San Diego in the next two weeks.

Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci repeated this week that the force of 27 warships, including 18 in the gulf, would be reduced sharply if the cease-fire held for a “prudent” period.