USS Nimitz (CVN-68) made the trek down the West Coast as it sailed from Bremerton, Wash., to San Diego, Calif., over the weekend ahead of its upcoming deployment arriving on Monday, according to the USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker.
The Navy’s oldest carrier, which is on its last planned deployment, is now at Naval Air Station North Island for the final preparations for deployment.
Destroyer Squadron 9 is embarked on Nimitz and includes USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG-54), USS Gridley (DDG-101), USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG-108) and USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG-123).
Curtis Wilbur and Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee are both homeported in San Diego, while Wayne E. Meyer is homeported at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and Gridley came from Naval Station Everett, Wash.
The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is set for an Indo-Pacific deployment. However, those plans could change. The last three West Coast carriers have been sent to U.S. Central Command as part of the ongoing response to the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
Meanwhile, the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group, which made a port call in Guam over the weekend, is heading to Central Command, where it will join the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group in the region
USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) is the third West Coast-based carrier to head to Central Command since the Houthis began attacking commercial shipping in November 2023. The Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike groups went into the Red Sea at the end of 2024 to relieve the Dwight D. Carrier Strike Group and fill in until the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group arrived.
Tensions between the Houthis and the United States flared on March 15 after the U.S. struck Houthi territory in Yemen. New reporting from The Atlantic suggests that the Trump administration undertook the strikes to “send a message” to the Houthis and Iran. Prior to the March 15 attacks on Yemen, the Houthis had not made attacks since Jan. 19 when the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect.
Since the U.S. strikes, the Houthis have now said they will target American warships in the Red Sea. The Yemeni-based group responded with unsuccessful attacks on the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group.
The initial barrage of missiles and drones missed the carrier strike group by 100 miles, Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, director of operations for Central Command, told reporters last week.
“I would question anything that they claim in the press that they’re doing or not doing. It’s very hard to tell what they are just based on their level of incompetence that they’ve demonstrated,” he said.
The Houthis and the U.S. have since traded strikes nearly daily. While Central Command has not put out a release about the strikes, they have posted on social media X with a variety of pictures and videos of the strikes against the Houthis.
The Houthis, which have used X to share the messaging, have claimed continuous attacks on the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, as well as sites in Israel following the breakdown of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
