USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) returned home Tuesday after 278 days out at sea on a deployment that saw the West Coast-based aircraft carrier sail into the Middle East.
Theodore Roosevelt pulled into San Diego, Calif., on Tuesday, the Navy announced. During its deployment, the flagship of the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group sailed in the U.S. 3rd, U.S. 5th and U.S. 7th fleet areas of responsibility. TR has been the second busiest carrier in the fleet over the last five years, just after the East Coast’s USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), according to USNI News carrier deployment data.
TR deployed in Jan.11 from Naval Air Station North Island, leaving with C-2A Greyhounds instead of CV-22B Ospreys due to the fleet-wide Osprey grounding following an Air Force crash in Japan. It chopped into 7th Fleet by Jan. 20, USNI News previously reported.
USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) and TR drilled with Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter destroyer JS Ise (DDH-182) at the end of January in the Philippine Sea. The carrier strike group spent the majority of its deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. In June, the CSG joined with the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group to drill together for Pacific Valiant Shield.
In June, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered the West Coast-based carrier to the Middle East, where it stayed until September. Moving TR and then the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group has allowed the U.S. to maintain a carrier presence in the Middle East since October 2023. TR succeeded the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group’s presence in the Middle East.
Although the strike group had orders to the Middle East, it spent most of the end of June exercising and making port visits in the Indo-Pacific region.
Austin extended the carrier’s time in the Middle East in August before sending the carrier strike group home in September.
