This post has been updated with additional details of USS Nimitz (CVN-68) planned final deployment.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has extended aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman‘s (CVN-75) deployment to the Middle East, while USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) will also head to U.S. Central Command, USNI News has learned.
Truman will stay in U.S. Central Command for another month, according to a U.S. official. Carl Vinson, which was operating in the East China Sea this week, has been tasked to the Middle East region to make for an overlapping two-carrier presence as the Trump administration ramps up its aggression against the Yemen-based Houthis.
It will take Vinson two to three weeks to reach CENTCOM, meaning the carriers will overlap for a period of time, USNI News understands. The ship movements come as the Trump administration resumed airstrikes on the Houthis last weekend.
After targeting commercial shipping and U.S. warships in the Red Sea for the last year and a half, the Houthis had not attacked any ships since Jan. 19 due to the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The Houthis, which are based out of Yemen and backed by Iran, attempted attacks on Truman and its escorts following the U.S. airstrikes in Yemen and said they will attack American ships.
In a post on Truth Social this week, Trump said the Houthis “will be completely annihilated” and called on Iran to stop sending them supplies.
Truman left Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia at the end of September and was nearing the end of its planned deployment when Hegseth extended the carrier. After operating in the North Sea for NATO exercises at the beginning of its deployment, Truman sailed to the Eastern Mediterranean and has spent much of its time since then operating in the Red Sea. The carrier briefly stopped in Souda Bay, Crete, last month for emergency repairs following a collision with a merchant ship near Port Said, Egypt.
Carl Vinson deployed in mid-November from Naval Station North Island in San Diego and has been operating in the Indo-Pacific for the last few months. The carrier, which has F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters aboard, drilled last week with U.S. Air Force and Republic of Korea Air Force F-35s.
The last overlap of two aircraft carriers in CENTCOM was at the end of August and early September when the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group were both operating in the area of responsibility.
The next West Coast-based carrier expected to deploy to the Indo-Pacific is USS Nimitz (CVN-68). The carrier departed Friday from Naval Base Kitsap, Wash., for what’s anticipated to be its final deployment.
“Nimitz is in its 50th year of service continues and celebrates its legacy of building alliances, demonstrating the power of teamwork and cooperation in maintaining maritime stability and global security,” carrier spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Tim Pietrack said in a statement.
