Where are the Navy’s 11 aircraft carriers now?
Look at where the Navy’s 11 aircraft carriers as of December 31, 2024. Latest National Interest reported the USS Nimitz already in the deactivation process, to be retired in 2025); yet spotted in the South China Sea as reported by Newsweek on May 5, 2025.
Latest: since July 13, 2024: the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt has been operating in the Middle East.
“There remains some degree of speculation that if a US warship [refering to the USS Dwight Eisenhower] did suffer damage, it might be kept under wraps. It’s entirely possible that the Pentagon would not publicize such an event in order to prevent the Houthis from declaring a ‘win’ and using it in their subsequent propaganda.”
Yahoo News • June 19, 2024 // Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Navy is weighing what to do about the USS Dwight D Eisenhower aircraft carrier, which has been battling Houthi rebel attacks on shipping in the Red Sea for nearly nine months. The question is how to replicate the carrier’s combat power if the ship returns home.
The service has 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. Generally, they are getting ready to deploy, are deployed or have come off deployment and have gone in for maintenance and repairs.
The carriers have a lifespan of about 50 years, and halfway through they undergo a major overhaul of their nuclear and other systems, which can take several years.
Here’s a look at where the Navy’s carriers are now:
Deployed
USS Dwight D Eisenhower — Based in Norfolk, Virginia, and in the Red Sea, it left Norfolk on Oct 14, 2023. Has been extended twice. [Now returning to Norfolk, Virginia, its Home Base for Some Major Repairs]
“There remains some degree of speculation that if a US warship [refering to the USS Dwight Eisenhower] did suffer damage, it might be kept under wraps. It’s entirely possible that the Pentagon would not publicize such an event in order to prevent the Houthis from declaring a ‘win’ and using it in their subsequent propaganda.”
USS George Washington — It is off the coast of Chile [too big to pass the Panama Canal], sailing from Norfolk to San Diego and then on to Japan, where it will be deployed, replacing the USS Ronald Reagan.
USS Theodore Roosevelt — Based in San Diego, it has been deployed in Indo-Pacific Command since January and is in the South China Sea. [Now in Busan/South Korea]
Latest: The Dwight D Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group left the Middle East on Saturday, the Pentagon said. It will soon be replaced by the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group. Currently in the Gulf of Oman as in early August, but heading home via South China Sea so quickly. Has some major mishaps happened somewhere but are too embarrassed to let the public know?]
USS Ronald Reagan — It has been the carrier deployed in Japan. It is on patrol in the Philippine Sea and will be going [back] to San Diego.
USS Harry S Truman (CVN-75) — It is based off the coast of Norfolk in pre-deployment workups. It is about halfway through its training for deployment and doing workups with the strike group. It is expected to deploy in October/November to relieve the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the region, that is, the Middle East region.
As of September 25, 2024, National Interest reported the USS Harry S Truman has been deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean as tensions in the Middle East escalate.
US Aircraft Carrier reported February 13, 2025 a highly unusual and embarrassing incident, damaged after Colliding with a merchant Ship Besiktas-M near Port Said, Egypt. After loosing 3 fighter jets to the Red Sea it is sailing home, reports USNI May 19, 2025.
USS Carl Vinson — It is in the port in San Diego and is in pre-deployment workups. It will go to the large, multinational military exercise known as the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) in July and deploy into Pacific Command late in the year.
Reuters March 2, 2025: The US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson arrived at the southern city of Busan in South Korea on Sunday as a show of force.
NavyTimes March 22, 2025: The US military is sending the USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group to the Middle East, to arrive in the region early next month as fighting with Houthi forces around Yemen reignites after a two-month pause.
Preparing to deploy
USS Abraham Lincoln — It is based in San Diego and has just finished its final composite unit training exercises and will deploy to Pacific Command in July. [But beginning of August, reschedules to the Middle East, with the USS Theodore Roosevelt already there]
The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and its strike group are now (August 23, 2024) operating in the Middle Eastern waters, but will leave the region soon (November 4, 2024, USNI). Already left November 18, 2024; had it been hit by the Houthis?
Being repaired
USS George H W Bush — It went into maintenance (at her home port is Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia) since last December (2023).
USS Gerald R Ford — It just returned from deployment and has entered its maintenance phase, which should last about a year. CNN January 2, 2024: The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford will head back to its homeport of Norfolk, Virginia.
Trump on February 14, 2025 reported full of costly and engineering issues; complaining that sailors need to be Albert Einstein to work the EMAL catapult system.
USS John C Stennis — In May 2021, the Stennis went into what’s known as RCOH — the major refueling complex overhaul — which can take four years. It is expected to return to duty in 2025. RCOH happens about midway through a carrier’s lifespan, and during that time, the ship’s electronics and combat and propulsion systems are upgraded, replaced and tested.
USS Nimitz (CVN-68) — the world’s oldest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier since commissioned on May 3, 1975; it went into maintenance in October 2023 and will move to workups later this year. (She returned to homeport in Norfolk, Virginia on July 2, 2023; National Interest reported already in the deactivation process, to be retired in 2025). But must have changed its mind and was spotted in the South China Sea as reported by Newsweek on May 5, 2025. And as of June, 16, 2025, Fox News reported back to the Middle-East!
Not yet in service
USS John F Kennedy — She is the second Gerald R Ford-class aircraft carrier scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in 2025.
Joel
A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob 