DEPLOYMENT: Marine F-35 aircraft carrier arrives in Middle East after Russia threatened US forces in Syria.

Until recently, the US had no capital ships and just one or two destroyers in the Mediterranean, but the USS Essex, a small, flat-deck aircraft carrier used to launch US Marine Corps F-35B stealth jets that can take off almost vertically, just arrived off the horn of Africa, USNI News reports.

Though the Essex remains on the opposite side of the Suez Canal from Russia’s ships in the Mediterranean, it’s a quick-moving ship. Additionally, the F-35Bs can fly about 550 miles out from the ship in stealth configurations that make them hard to detect for enemy defenses.

The Essex isn’t technically an aircraft carrier, but thanks to the addition of F-35Bs, it projects more air power than most anything this side of a Nimitz.