US military sends aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt to Mideast as Iran war drags

Families of US navy sailors assigned to the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group are preparing for a deployment in the Middle East lasting more than seven months as the US conflict with Iran continues with no clear end in sight, according to the US Naval Institute.

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), its escorts, and embarked Carrier Air Wing 11 are expected to depart San Diego in the coming weeks for US Central Command.

There, the strike group will relieve the Japan-based USS George Washington (CVN-73), which entered the US 5th Fleet area last week.

Since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28, the US has maintained a continuous carrier presence in the Arabian Sea.

From there, forces have conducted strikes over Iran and enforced a naval blockade of Tehran.

The open-ended commitment has pushed carrier deployments well beyond traditional lengths, averaging about 8.5 months since the broader regional tensions that intensified after the events of October 7,

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman, both about a year into their roles, addressed the strain during remarks to reporters on at Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads, Virginia.

“We’ve been in conflict pretty much the whole time I’ve been in the seat, and that’s certainly stressed the force,” Caudle said.

He added that the Navy is working to improve the extension process for greater planning certainty: “If we know we’re going into harm’s way, we should be able to project with a little bit more fidelity how long the carrier and the strike group is going to stay on station. We do these extensions in little chunks, and the families don’t see any endpoint so they can plan their own lives. That creates a lot of stress for sailors.”

The Navy has already seen record-length deployments. USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) returned in May after a 326-day deployment—the longest since the Cold War—though it included several port visits.

USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is on track for more than 300 days and spent about eight-and-a-half months without a port call, a far more taxing experience.

“That fundamentally has made that a better experience for [Ford] sailors than the Abe’s experience,” Caudle noted.

“It’s not the operations – they’re nearly identical in the combat sortie process that they were conducting. It’s really the port calls and the ability to reset and take a knee.” Caudle prefers seven-month deployments and resists extensions, but acknowledged: “The enemy gets a vote.”