An American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier on Friday returned to its home port in Japan, a security ally of the United States, for forward deployment to patrol waters near China.
USS George Washington, one of 10 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers in service with the U.S. Navy, arrived home at Yokosuka naval base in Japan, located within the Greater Tokyo Area. The 100,000-ton warship was previously stationed there from 2008 to 2015.
This marks the end of the "carrier gap" for the U.S. military in the Western Pacific Ocean. No American aircraft carriers, including the USS Ronald Reagan, which was stationed in Yokosuka since 2015, were available for immediate tasking in the region during the summer.
At that time, while the George Washington and the Ronald Reagan were in California for role-swapping, the Pentagon repositioned two other "flattops" from scheduled deployments in the Western Pacific Ocean to the Middle East amid tensions between Iran and U.S. ally Israel.
"A U.S. carrier represents the most advanced maritime capability we have," said Vice Admiral Fred Kacher, the head of the Yokosuka-based U.S. Seventh Fleet. "It's the most advanced investment we can make in the security of Japan and of the Western Pacific."
Kacher's fleet has an operating area that covers the Western Pacific Ocean and parts of the Indian Ocean, including several potential conflict hotspots near China, like the East China Sea, the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, and the Korean Peninsula.
The U.S. signed a security treaty with Japan in 1960 and deployed about 54,000 military personnel in the East Asian country. Washington is also committed to using its full range of military capabilities, including nuclear, as the extended deterrence that defends Japan.
Japan has disputes over an uninhabited island group in the East China Sea with China, a country that is viewed by the U.S. military as the pacing challenge. Meanwhile, the Chinese military has been operating near Japan's airspace and waters, causing alarm in Tokyo.
"The George Washington returns with modernized, cutting-edge technology that represents our investment in deterrence and security in this region," Kacher added. The warship is now permanently forward-deployed to Japan and will spend about half of each year at sea.
Following its first deployment to Japan, the George Washington underwent a 2,117-day maintenance period at a shipyard in Virginia since 2017, which saw it being refueled, repaired, upgraded, and modernized. It was redelivered to the Navy in May 2023.
The George Washington's homebound journey began in April when it sailed from Virginia and circumnavigated South America. It conducted a "hull swap," an operational transition between two aircraft carriers, with the Ronald Reagan in California during the summer.
The aircraft carrier commenced its transit to Japan from the U.S. West Coast on October 8. After reaching the Western Pacific Ocean, it took part in an exercise in waters near South Korea's Jeju Island from November 13 to 15 with South Korean and Japanese forces.
Before its arrival in Yokosuka, the "flattop" has first sent back its carrier-based operational aviation organization, including an F-35C stealth fighter jet squadron, to Iwakuni and Atsugi, where are the aircraft's bases on land in Japan when not embarked aboard the George Washington.
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English (US) ·