(Daily360.com) – The United States Navy has deployed a third carrier strike group (CSG) to the western Pacific theater. The move comes as Taiwan held its national elections and put in power people with anti-Communist Chinese Party (CCP) positions.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) will join the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) and the USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), both of which had already been deployed to the region. Dispatching the Roosevelt CSG was done quietly and with a degree of haste on Thursday January 11. Officials within the State Department did confirm the deployment of the CSG after reports surfaced from eyewitnesses who saw the vessels departing. The CSG was deployed from the East Coast of the United States with a sizeable detachment of C-2A Greyhound aircraft flying in support to provide fleet logistics.
Initially the Theodore Roosevelt CSG was slated to relieve the Vinson CSG after its six-month deployment in the Philippine Sea. That plan has been altered for now as the Vinson CSG will not be returning and will instead head nearer to Taiwan. The Reagan CSG had been the only group that was deployed but completed its final patrol in November of 2023 and is due to return to the United States early in 2024.
The CVN 71 is the fourth Nimitz-class nuclear powered aircraft carrier in the Navy. The ship is named after the 26th President of the United States who was known as a strong U.S. Navy advocate. The CSG is made up of the carrier and Carrier Strike Group 9. This strike group consists of a cruiser, a destroyer squadron of at least two frigates or destroyers, and the carrier airwing of about 65 to 70 aircraft in addition to the Greyhound aircraft. The group may also contain submarines and a supply ship. The group is commanded by Rear Adm. Christopher Alexander who assumed command in June of 2023 after Rear Adm. Robert Chadwick turned it over to him after he had been in charge since 2021.
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