The U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier strike group, led by the USS George Washington (CVN-73), arrived yesterday in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, as part of a scheduled port call during its current patrol of the Western Pacific. The capital ship, operating under the command of the U.S. 7th Fleet, had departed from its homeport in Yokosuka, Japan, in mid-June.
As a brief recap, the USS George Washington (CVN-73) arrived in Japan in November 2024 to replace the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) as the flagship of the Forward-Deployed Naval Forces–Japan (FDNF-J). Since then, the CVN-73 has conducted various exercises, notably Freedom Edge, which also involved elements of the Japanese and South Korean armed forces.
Later, in May of this year, the carrier operated in the Pacific Ocean and the Philippine Sea, where MH-60S Knight Hawk helicopters from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 12 (HSC-12) “Golden Falcons” conducted flight exercises. Toward the end of the same month, the carrier carried out underway replenishment operations with the fleet oiler Badlands Trader, operated by the Military Sealift Command (MSC). After completing its operational activities, the carrier returned to Japan on June 3. However, just days later, on June 10, the capital ship set sail once again to conduct carrier qualification training with the squadrons of Carrier Air Wing 5 (CVW-5), which included Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) exercises featuring F-35 fighters operating for the first time from Iwo To island.
Shortly after, on June 16, the CVN-73 officially began its first patrol as a forward-deployed carrier, resuming its operational role within the U.S. 7th Fleet’s forward presence missions. Since then, the vessel has sailed through the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea—two areas of immense strategic importance—where naval power projection has become routine due to the increasing deployment of military assets by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). In these waters, U.S. patrols typically include deterrence, presence, and surveillance missions, often as potential responses to actions by other countries that could threaten regional security.
At present, the USS George Washington leads the only actively deployed U.S. Navy carrier strike group in the Indo-Pacific theater, a fact that underscores its critical role in the White House’s renewed strategic focus on the region. This is largely due to the reassignment of the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) and its accompanying ships to the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of operations in the Middle East, amid escalating tensions and attacks between Israel and Iran.
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