As Trump pushes Iran to make a deal, dozens of US warplanes are joining the “armada” headed for the region.

The US Navy’s 1,000-foot-long aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford changed its course for several hours Wednesday afternoon, revealing its location about 175 miles off the west coast of Morocco in the direction of the Strait of Gibraltar and further into the Mediterranean Sea. The ship’s location suggested it could reach the Eastern Mediterranean days earlier than expected.

Ford is it the US’s second largest aircraft carrier ordered by President Trump to target waters around Iran as part of a major military buildup as he pushes the Islamic Republic to make a deal on its nuclear program. The “armada” of the sea, as Mr. Trump calls it that, along with a major surge in US military flights to Europe and the Middle East, a CBS News analysis found.

Senior national security officials told Mr. Trump said the U.S. military is ready for possible strikes on Iran as soon as Saturday, but the timeline for any action is likely to extend beyond this weekend, sources familiar with the talks said. he told CBS News On Wednesday, he added that President Trump had not yet made a final decision on whether to strike Iran.

“Now is the time for Iran to join us on the way to complete what we are doing,” said Mr. Trump on Thursday at a meeting of his Peace Council in Washington.

“If they join us, it will be great. If they don’t join us, that will be great, too. But it will be a very different approach,” the president said, adding: “If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. But bad things will happen if it doesn’t happen.”

Free Press: Donald Trump’s Iran Trap

Activating the Automatic Identification System (AIS), allowing the Ford to appear on open-source maritime tracking websites was a clear sign that the US military wanted it to be seen – not only by the many journalists and hobbyists who keep tabs on shipping traffic, but also by Iran.

The massive build-up of the US warships has come amid a less-discussed, but equally public movement of the US air force from home bases to Europe and the Middle East.

In just eight hours on Wednesday, CBS News Confirmed was able to identify more than 50 US Air Force and Navy planes flying east from military airfields in both US states to the United Kingdom, continental Europe and the Middle East, where some disappeared from radar near the Jordan-Saudi Arabia border.

The planes seen during the flight included heavy fuel, transport and surveillance aircraft. In addition to public tracking information, images showed US Air Force F-15, F-22, and F-35 fighter jets landing at UK bases and taking off again this week.

These images, captured by human plane spotters and uploaded to social media, show that in addition to the transport plane revealed by tracking data, American strike forces have also been moving into the region.

The flights tracked by CBS News on Wednesday represent a small fraction of the hundreds of aircraft movements seen in recent days.

Although it is unusual for the US military to redeploy equipment and troops around the world, the increase in aircraft, especially refueling aircraft, and their arrival at bases in the Azores and Crete before the arrival of Ford, has fueled speculation about a possible US attack on Iran.

The bases in the Azores – the Portuguese islands in the middle of the Atlantic – and the Greek island of Crete, were both critical during Operation Midnight Hammer, the US strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, carried out in conjunction with the 12-day war between Israel and Iran.

If Ford sails into the Mediterranean as it seems it will in the coming days, it will join USS Abraham Lincoln strike groupwhich has been deployed in the Arabian Sea since January, within striking distance of Iran. Lincoln was recently spotted in a public satellite image on Feb. 15, about 200 miles off the coast of Oman.

Both US aircraft carriers are the flagships of their strike groups, which include other warships and dozens of fighter jets and helicopters. While Ford – the world’s largest aircraft carrier – appears to have moved on with its strike group after leaving the Caribbean last week, the full Lincoln strike group has been in the Middle East for weeks.

There are also guided missile destroyers deployed outside the carrier strike groups, including the USS Roosevelt and USS Bulkeley in the Mediterranean, the USS Delbert D Black in the Red Sea, and the USS Mitscher in the Persian Gulf.

Elliot Ackerman, a former CIA and Marine Corps officer and CBS News contributor, said on CBS News 24/7’s “The Daily Report” that Mr. Trump won’t order strikes on Iran, but military deployments to the Middle East give him more flexibility.

“Building this military in the region gives him not only a range of options, but also real power against the Iranians,” Ackerman said. “He may or may not use these options, but it’s very important to have these skills in place.”