An American F‑35 fighter jet has shot down an Iranian drone that flew too close to the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, according to U.S. officials. What looked like a brief encounter over open water could be the spark in a powder keg already packed with carrier deployments, nuclear brinkmanship and threats of “regional war” if shots are fired. Was this a routine intercept, a deliberate Iranian probe, or a message from Washington that the red lines are hardening?