The website of the US Naval Society stated on the 4th that the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group left the San Diego Naval Base in California on the same day and headed to the Western Pacific to start deployment.
The U.S. Navy Third Fleet revealed in a statement, "The USS Nimitz left San Diego, California and headed to US Third Fleet to for operation. It is the flagship of the 11th aircraft carrier strike group and is ready to respond to the call of the country and send naval forces ready to fight at any time to deter and win conflicts through continuous and forward-looking naval existences when necessary."
is somewhat embarrassed that this is the oldest active aircraft carrier in the United States, and it is accompanied by the oldest US cruiser "Bunker Hill" - and the five missile destroyers with an average age of equally young. Among them, the Nimitz started construction in 1968 and entered service in 1975, with a 47-year-old ship; the Bunker Hill started construction in 1984 and entered service in 1987. According to the U.S. Navy plan, both antique warships will be retired within the next two or three years. Most of the five destroyers in the escort fleet were not young, namely the Paul Hamilton (DDG-60), the Decart (DDG-73), the Shopp (DDG-86), the Zhong Yun (DDG-93) and the Wayne Meyer (DDG-108).
For the Nimitz, this deployment was also quite bumpy. It had previously ended nearly a year-long overseas deployment during the epidemic, setting the ship's longest maritime deployment record, and subsequently carried out planned short-term repairs. As a result, a lot of problems followed. First, in November 2021, after the Nimitz completed maintenance and went to sea for testing, it was discovered that the nuclear power plant on the aircraft carrier had "slight material defects" and was forced to return to the home port of , Washington State, on November 9. Although the U.S. Navy claimed that "this defect will not pose a danger to the , propulsion device, crew or the environment of the ship", it refused to disclose what was wrong with the nuclear power plant of the aircraft carrier. Next is during training in September this year, the aircraft carrier found that the drinking water system on the ship was mixed with aviation fuel, and the aircraft carrier was once again forced to return to the port for long-term maintenance. The U.S. Navy acknowledged that drinking water problems directly affected the overseas deployment of the Nimitz.
It is worth noting that according to the mission planning of the US Navy, usually the Seventh Fleet is responsible for the Western Pacific, and the Third Fleet is responsible for the Eastern Pacific and the West Coast is responsible for the Eastern Pacific and the West Coast of the US. But in recent years, as the US aircraft carriers are "not enough", the Third Fleet aircraft carriers are increasingly involved in the "deterrence operation" in the Western Pacific - this time the Nimitz heads to the Western Pacific for this purpose. The U.S. aircraft carrier "Reagan" , currently active in the Western Pacific, has been deployed intermittently for more than half a year, especially since its launch in September, which has maintained high-intensity activities in the Sea of Japan and the Philippine Sea of . According to the South China Sea strategic situation awareness on December 1, according to the flight trajectory of the carrier-based aircraft "Greyhound" C-2A of the USS Reagan aircraft carrier, in early December, the US Navy's "Reagan" aircraft carrier strike group traveled south to the waters east of the Amami Islands in Okinawa.
Therefore, it can be predicted that after the Nimitz arrives in the Western Pacific, the United States will briefly have a dual-carrier battle group in the region, but then Reagan will return to Yokosuka base for renovation.
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