WI: Direct American Intervention in the Yom Kippur War

Delta Force

Banned
The USS John F. Kennedy, USS Independence, and USS Franklin D. Roosevelt were all assigned to refuel aircraft participating in Operation Nickel Grass during the Yom Kippur War. What if the supercarriers had been used to provide more direct American support to Israel, such as flying combat air patrols over Israeli territory and possibly carrying out airstrikes in support of Israeli ground forces? Could any other assets have been used to help support Israel, or would diplomatic difficulties have confined direct support to whatever assets the USN could deploy to the area?
 
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Andre27

Banned
The USS John F. Kennedy, USS Independence, and USS Franklin D. Roosevelt were all assigned to refuel aircraft participating in Operation Nickel Grass during the [ur=[URL]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur_War]Yom[/URL] Kippur War[/url]. What if the supercarriers had been used to provide more direct American support to Israel, such as flying combat air patrols over Israeli territory and possibly carrying out airstrikes in support of Israeli ground forces? Could any other assets have been used to help support Israel, or would diplomatic difficulties have confined direct support to whatever assets the USN could deploy to the area?

Do you have any sort of contingency plan to keep the soviet union from jumping in on the arab side?
 

Delta Force

Banned
Do you have any sort of contingency plan to keep the soviet union from jumping in on the arab side?

The Soviets froze when the United States started moving forces in for Operation Nickel Grass. The Israelis also began visible preparations of their nuclear forces. The Soviets didn't want to fight a nuclear war over their Arab allies, so they probably would have seen it as a least worst option. There was a Soviet naval base in Tartus at the time too, so it's not like the United States would be suddenly escalating things, especially if the aircraft only stayed over Israel. The Soviets were probably doing something similar in Syria, at least around Tartus.
 
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