Carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) has left the Middle East eight months into its deployment, Pentagon officials announced on Thursday.
A U.S. official confirmed to USNI News the transit to the Pacific occurred late Wednesday.
The San Diego, Calif., based carrier has been operating in U.S. Central Command since July as part of the Navy’s presence mission in the Middle East to protect merchant shipping from attack from the Houthis.
“Following a period of dual carrier coverage by the Theodore Roosevelt, CSG and the Abraham Lincoln, CSG in the CENTCOM region, Theodore Roosevelt has departed and begun its transit into the Indo-Pacific command area of operations,” Maj Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Thursday.
San Diego, Calif.-based USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) has been in 5th Fleet since late August after deploying from California in mid-July.
For three weeks, the U.S. has operated two carrier strike groups in the Middle East as part of the merchant protection mission as well as a hedge against Iranian action in the region, defense officials told USNI News.
Theodore Roosevelt and its crew will now spend several weeks journeying back to California, USNI News understands. According to USNI News carrier deployment data, TR is the second busiest carrier in the fleet over the last five years just after the East Coast’s USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). As of Thursday, the carrier has deployed for 572 days since the start of 2020.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s extension of Theodore Roosevelt follows a trend of extended carrier deployments in the Mediterranean Sea and the Middle East that began in late 2021 on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Following the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, the U.S. shifted its carrier focus to U.S. Central Command as the Houthi threat expanded.
Starting with USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), carriers in 2021 that have been assigned to the region have spent almost nine months deployed on average with Austin ordering at least one extension for each deployment. Typically the carriers assigned to the Mediterranean and the Middle East were based on the East Coast with the West Coast carriers assigned to the Pacific. That balance shifted when Theodore Roosevelt was retasked to the Middle East to relieve Ike, which had operated in the Red Sea for seven months of its nine month deployment.
The Norfolk-based Harry S. Truman completed its pre-deployment workups earlier this summer and is expected to relieve Lincoln when it begins its upcoming deployment, USNI News understands.
