USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), flagship of the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, is now in the Mediterranean Sea, USNI News has learned.
Ship spotters placed Truman in the Strait of Gibraltar, heading east, on Monday. Ships must pass through Strait of Gibraltar to get into the Mediterranean Sea.
How long Truman and the ships in the carrier strike group will stay in the Med is unclear. The U.S. has maintained an almost uninterrupted presence in the Middle East with either a carrier or amphibious ship since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Southern Israel and subsequent Israeli bombardment of Gaza. The Pentagon has not announced if Truman will follow the course of the other East Coast carriers and go into the Red Sea.
The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group left the Middle East last week, leaving the Middle East without a carrier for just the second time in over a year.
Truman deployed on Sept. 23. Unlike the previous East Coast carriers, Truman headed north, doing exercises in the North Sea instead of sailing straight for U.S. 6th Fleet.
The aircraft carrier’s presence in the Mediterranean marks a complete cycle of U.S. aircraft carrier presence in the Med and Red Sea in response to the two wars that have broken out. Truman deployed to the Med in December 2020 ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
From then until the Oct. 7 attacks, the U.S. maintained an almost steady presence in the Med. When Hamas attacked Israel, the U.S. moved USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) to the Eastern Med in response. When the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group deployed, it headed to the Red Sea after exercising with Ford.
With Truman still wrapping up pre-deployment tasks, the U.S. shifted to West Coast carrier strike groups – Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt – to the Middle East, allowing the Ike Carrier Strike Group to head home.
The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group returned home to San Diego toward the end of October.
