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recently, the us navy's cvn-71 "theodore roosevelt" aircraft carrier strike group left the middle east to end its deployment. the us naval institute news (usni news) reported on thursday (september 12) that a us department of defense official had confirmed that the "roosevelt" set off to return to the pacific on wednesday evening (11th).

the headline of this report on usni news network is "uss roosevelt leaves the middle east and returns to the pacific after 8 months of deployment." however, in this confusing headline, "8 months" refers to the total time since the "roosevelt" set off from san diego on january 12 this year, and the first destination of the deployment was the western pacific. during the deployment in the western pacific, the "roosevelt" appeared in the east china sea and the south china sea many times, conducted many exercises with japan and the philippines in the south china sea, and arrived in busan at the end of june to conduct the "freedom blade" joint exercise between the united states, japan and south korea.

on june 7 this year, the uss roosevelt participated in the "valiant shield" exercise in the south china sea.

the pentagon decided to send the uss roosevelt to the middle east to fill the "aircraft carrier window" in the middle east after the cvn-69 uss eisenhower left the red sea on june 22. on june 29, the uss roosevelt, which had just finished the us-japan-south korea joint exercise, set off for the middle east. at this time, the uss roosevelt had been deployed for 169 days (more than 5 and a half months) since it departed from san diego. subsequently, the uss roosevelt entered the indian ocean through the strait of malacca on july 7 and arrived in the arabian sea near the red sea around july 15. according to this data, the uss roosevelt was actually deployed in the middle east for only about two months.

rear admiral patrick s. ryder, press secretary for the u.s. department of defense, said on thursday that the "roosevelt" achieved "a period of dual carrier coverage" in the middle east with the "lincoln" before leaving the central command mission area for the so-called "indo-pacific" command area. the cvn-72 "abraham lincoln" aircraft carrier strike group departed from san diego, california on july 11 and announced its arrival in the u.s. central command mission area on august 22, maintaining a "dual carrier situation" with the "roosevelt" in this area for up to three weeks. defense officials told usni news that the three-week "dual carrier situation" was part of the u.s. navy's "protection of merchant ships" and "opposition to iran."

the uss lincoln with f-35c carrier-based aircraft arrives in the arabian sea

after that, the uss roosevelt will "spend several weeks" returning to its home port in san diego, california. the us national interest website reported this with the title "the big stick is coming home". in addition, the report also revealed that at the same time as the roosevelt set off for home, an ohio-class cruise missile nuclear submarine, ssgn-729 georgia, arrived at the central command/fifth fleet mission area, strengthening the us's "deterrence capability against iran and its regional proxies."

usni news network stated that according to the aircraft carrier deployment data compiled by the website, in the past nearly five years, the "theodore roosevelt" has been the second busiest aircraft carrier of the u.s. navy. it has been deployed for 572 days since the beginning of 2020 (data from the day of the report, 574 days as of press time), and this deployment, which began on january 22 this year, has lasted for 243 days, accounting for more than 40%.

interestingly, the photo accompanying the report in the national interest is a scene of the last deployment of the uss roosevelt with a tomcat. it was taken on march 10, 2006. the f-14d fighter took off from the uss roosevelt, which was about to return to the atlantic ocean, and returned to the oceana naval air station. in september of that year, all f-14 tomcats of the us navy were retired.

since the sudden tension between russia and ukraine at the end of 2021, the us navy's demand for troops in the middle east has soared. the new round of israeli-palestinian conflict triggered by the "aqsa flood" operation on october 7 last year has further shifted the focus of us aircraft carrier demand to the central command mission area. affected by the above factors, starting with the deployment of the cvn-75 "harry s. truman" strike group in 2021, the average deployment period of aircraft carriers specially deployed to this area and temporarily transferred from other deployment areas has reached 9 months, and almost every aircraft carrier will receive an extended deployment order from austin.

the long-standing principle followed by the us navy, that is, aircraft carriers based on the east coast are responsible for deployment to europe and the middle east, and aircraft carriers based on the west coast are responsible for deployment to the pacific, was also broken when the "roosevelt" was transferred to the middle east, and the "lincoln" set off directly from san diego to the middle east. however, the report also revealed that cvn-75 "harry s. truman", whose home port is in norfolk on the east coast, had completed its pre-deployment inspection this summer and was scheduled to take over when the "lincoln" ended its deployment.