TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The US Navy said Friday (Oct. 18) the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS George Washington, is in transit across the Pacific on its way to Japan’s Yokosuka naval base.
The USS George Washington departed from San Diego, California on Oct. 8, according to a press release. The aircraft carrier will take over from its sister ship, the USS Ronald Reagan, which served as the navy’s forward-deployed carrier in the region since 2015.
News of the carrier rotation was announced last year during the ninth year of the USS Ronald Reagan’s deployment in the Indo-Pacific. In accordance with US law, which limits naval vessels from being forward-deployed for more than 10 years, the USS Ronald Reagan departed Japan in May.
The USS George Washington previously served in the region from 2008 to 2015, so it will be returning to familiar waters.
The navy’s press release indicates that the nuclear-powered carrier completed its “midlife refueling and complex overhaul” in Virginia in May last year. The ship left Virginia in late spring and traveled south, before transiting the Drake Passage to enter the Pacific Ocean.
While in San Diego, the aircraft carrier was joined by the Carrier Air Wing 5 group, which recently completed training exercises in Nevada. The USS George Washington will transport the Carrier Air Wing to its forward-deployed base in Iwakuni, located in Western Honshu, before arriving at Yokosuka Naval Base, near Tokyo in late fall.