USS George Washington Will Arrive in Japan this Week

November 19, 2024 12:38 PM
U.S. 7th Fleet’s premiere forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN-73) steams in the Western Pacific Ocean during Keen Sword 25, Oct. 29, 2024. US Navy Photo

USS George Washington (CVN-73) will arrive in its new homeport of Yokosuka, Japan, on Friday, returning to the port almost nine years after being relieved as the Forward Deployed Naval Force–Japan (FDNF-J) aircraft carrier by USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) in 2015.

Meanwhile, the Department of Defense on Monday announced a new initiative for maritime security in South-East Asia, while Japan’s Ministry of Defense on Friday announced that the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) has selected the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., MQ-9B SeaGuardian unmanned aerial vehicle for its UAV fleet.

On Tuesday, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a short release about George Washington’s pending arrival Yokosuka on Nov. 22.

“As the security environment in the region surrounding Japan becomes increasingly severe, maintaining a robust presence of the U.S. Navy through the forward-deployment of USS George Washington and the Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5 is essential to the security of Japan and the maintenance of regional peace and stability. Japan highly values the role that the US 7th Fleet plays for such objectives,” reads the statement.

This is the second time GW has served as the FDNF-J aircraft carrier. It was stationed in Yokosuka from 2008 to 2015 before returning to the United States for its midlife refueling and complex overhaul at Newport News Shipbuilding, which was compled in May 2023.

USNI News reported that what was supposed to be a four-year process dragged on to almost six years because of unexpected repairs to its steam turbines and other delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following its exit from the yard, George Washington then conducted pre-deployment certifications and inspections over the course of 10 months, and departed Norfolk, Virginia, in April for its Southern Seas deployment around South America, arriving in San Diego in July.

The carrier proceeded to carry out a patrol as it arrived in the U.S. 7th Fleet operational area, culminating in its participation in the second iteration of U.S.–Japan–South Korea trilateral multidomain exercise Freedom Edge, which began on Nov. 13 and ended on Friday. Subsequently, on Sunday, George Washington’s embarked CVW-5 arrived at its home base of Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, according to a release on the same day

On Monday, the Department of Defense’s Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs (IPSA) announced the Maritime Security (MARSEC) Consortium, a new public-private initiative focused on transforming maritime security in Southeast Asia according to a Pentagon readout.

The readout stated that IPSA is launching the MARSEC Consortium in collaboration with the Defense Innovation Unit, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

“Together, they will match policy objectives and operational challenges with commercially available solutions, demonstrate those capabilities, and expedite delivery. Ensuring Southeast Asian allies and partners have impactful, cost-effective means to monitor, manage, and enforce maritime security interests will increase regional and global peace, security, and prosperity,” stated the readout.

In the coming months, according to the readout, the MARSEC Consortium will advance upwards of $95 million annually toward low-cost, commercially available solutions to strengthen maritime domain awareness, logistics and sustainment and maritime defense in Southeast Asia; regularly convene stakeholders across DOD and industry to mitigate barriers to delivering commercially available solutions; work with like-minded partners to align security cooperation activities with MARSEC Consortium objectives and expand technology demonstrations for allies and partners in multilateral exercises such as the U.S. –Philippines BALIKATAN exercise.

On Friday, Japan’s MOD issued a release stating that the SeaGuardian has been selected as it had satisfied all the requirements for a UAV of the JMSDF. The release also stated that Japanese trading company Sojitz Corporation will supply the UAVs but did not state how many UAVs would be acquired.

Earlier in August, Sojitz announced it would supply two SeaGuardians to the Japan Coast Guard (JCG), which will become operational in FY2025 (Japan’s fiscal year is from Apr. 1 to Mar. 31). The JCG began operations in October 2022 with a single SeaGuardian leased from GA-ASI before expanding the fleet with an additional two leased SeaGuardians in May 2023. The JMSDF conducted trials of the SeaGuardian from May 2023 at JMSDF Hachinohe Air Base (located on the main island of Honshu) before carrying out trials from July to September this year from JMSDF Kanoya Air Base (located on the main island of Kyushu).

In a press conference on Tuesday, Japan’s Defense Minister Gen Nakatani stated the acquisition of the SeaGuardians would strengthen the Japan Self-Defense Force wide-area maritime surveillance capabilities and that in the event of an emergency, it will be possible to carry out missions while limiting personnel losses. “We will continue to consider the specific details of the operation, but, in general, it is important to further strengthen our intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities in close cooperation with the United States,” said Nakatani.

Japan has been looking at increasing its persistent ISR capabilities around the home islands, particularly in the southwest region, which has seen an increase in Chinese naval and aircraft movements, along with China’s claims of sovereignty over the disputed Senkaku Islands group held by Japan. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force operates three RQ-4B Global Hawks for persistent ISR missions.

The U.S. has stationed a number of UAVs at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa to carry out ISR missions in the southwest region, including around six Marine Corps MQ-9 Reapers on a year-long deployment and eight U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reapers on an indefinite deployment. Both services’ UAVs are unarmed. Two U.S. Navy MQ-4 Triton UAVs were scheduled to have wrapped up their deployment to Kadena in October and returned to Guam, though neither the U.S. Navy nor Japan have confirmed their departure.

Dzirhan Mahadzir

Dzirhan Mahadzir

Dzirhan Mahadzir is a freelance defense journalist and analyst based in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. Among the publications he has written for and currently writes for since 1998 includes Defence Review Asia, Jane’s Defence Weekly, Navy International, International Defence Review, Asian Defence Journal, Defence Helicopter, Asian Military Review and the Asia-Pacific Defence Reporter.

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