The U.S. Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) prepares to be moored to the pier in Los Angeles Harbor during Los Angeles Fleet Week, May 21, 2024. (Victoria Danser/U.S. Navy)
The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson has departed from San Diego without fanfare for a scheduled deployment to the Indo-Pacific region, a Navy spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
Ship spotters saw the aircraft carrier Monday leaving its homeport of Naval Air Station North Island, Calif., with sailors wearing dress blues manning the rails.
A spokesperson for the Navy confirmed the warship’s movement, and that it is headed to the Indo-Pacific region. The deployment was “always planned for around this time this year,” the spokesperson said.
The USS George Washington is also currently in the region as it transits to its new homeport of Japan.
Meanwhile, the USS Abraham Lincoln is leaving the Middle East, the U.S. Naval Institute fleet tracker reported.
The Lincoln’s departure follows nearly three months in the Red Sea fending off Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacking maritime merchant shipping. The West Coast-based carrier and its strike group deployed in July for what was expected to be a Pacific deployment but were directed to the Middle East in late August.
The USS Wasp, embarked with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, was also spotted heading west through the Strait of Gibraltar, towards the Atlantic, according to the U.S. Naval Institute fleet tracker. The amphibious group deployed in June from Virginia.
The Lincoln and the Wasp making their exits from the Middle East leaves independent destroyers to defend the region, which have played a key role in defending merchant shippers and Israel in recent weeks. The USS Bulkeley and USS Cole joined Israeli air defense units in firing about a dozen interceptors to shoot down inbound Iranian missiles, the Pentagon said in October.
In September, the USS Georgia — an Ohio-class, ballistic-missile submarine 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles along with Mk48 torpedoes — arrived in the Middle East. The Navy’s Office of Information declined Tuesday to confirm if the submarine was still in the region.
The USS Harry S. Truman, homeported at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., is enroute to the Mediterranean and is expected to take the Lincoln’s place in the Red Sea. Until the Truman and its supporting destroyers arrive, the region is left without a carrier strike group.
