NORTH ARABIAN SEA (Jan. 8, 2021) The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) patrols the Arabian Sea. Nimitz, the flagship of Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to ensure maritime stability and security in the Central Region. (U.S. Navy photo by Bryant Lang)
By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
The USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is departing the Central Command area of responsibility in the Persian Gulf and moving into the U.S. Indo-Pacific region, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby announced Tuesday. The carrier is homeported in Bremerton, Washington. It is now in the 7th Fleet area of responsibility and can be called upon for operations, training or humanitarian exercises there. The Nimitz’s departure means there is no U.S. carrier operating in the Central Command area of operations, according to the Pentagon. Political observers speculate the move was made because President Joe Biden is seeking to ease tensions with Iran that were at the boiling point under the former Trump administration. The USS Nimitz was at sea some 270 days performing exercises with the Indian navy and seeking to deter Iran from retaliating for last year’s killing of Qasem Soleimani that was authorized by Trump.
The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) in San Diego, CA preparing for a 2009 regularly scheduled Western Pacific Deployment. (U.S. Navy photo John Philip Wagner Jr.
“We want to thank all the men and women aboard the ships in that strike crew and the squadrons who supporteduse Central Command now for more than 270 days, ensuring our national security and deterring conflict in a very critical region of the world,” Kirby said. The Pentagon press secretary added that Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III believes America has “a robust presence in the Middle East.” U.S. service members are based in many nations in the Persian Gulf and there is more than enough airpower to counter any adversary. Kirby said Austin has constant discussions with U.S. Central Command commander Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie, as well as other combatant commanders. Austin must balance requirements from various parts of the world, and the United States doesn’t have an unlimited number of aircraft carriers, Kirby added.
These decisions are carefully weighed, the Pentagon press secretary emphasized. “Every decision that we make with military forces — air, ground or naval — and certainly, decisions that you make with respect to a capital asset, like an aircraft carrier and its associated, supporting Strike Group is a decision driven by a frank assessment of the threats in the area, and also a frank consideration of the capabilities themselves,” Kirby said. “So, absolutely, the secretary was mindful of the larger geostrategic picture when he approved the movement of the Carrier Strike Group from the Central Command area responsibility.”
