U.S. Navy Supercarrier Departed San Diego, Beginning Pacific Deployment

USS Theodore Roosevelt travels across the Arabian Sea, December 6, 2001, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. (Photo by US Navy/Getty Images)

Getty Images

The United States Navy’s fourth Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), conducted exercises off the coast of California to bolster its readiness. The flagship of Carrier Strike Group 9 departed Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, on January 21, resuming operational activities after completing maintenance and training.

The deployment began two weeks after the vessel completed a virtual reality training demonstration.

In a Facebook post, the U.S. Pacific Fleet confirmed that CVN-71 began her current deployment but did not confirm where the ship will head. WarshipCam also shared photos of USS Theodore Roosevelt departing America’s friendliest city.

The carrier previously returned to San Diego in October 2024, completing a nine-month deployment.

Ready For Another Lengthy Deployment

CVN-71 spent the end of 2024 and all of 2025 preparing for the current deployment, which will likely continue until sometime in the fall.

Six-month deployments used to be the standard, but operational demands and too few carriers have led to missions lasting eight and even nine months, impacting crew morale and ship maintenance schedules. It is part of an ongoing cycle with the United States Navy, which is increasingly stretched thin with more global hotspots than carriers to address the threats.

As a result, carriers often spend significant time in port, undergoing lengthy maintenance to address the wear and tear, but that in turn means another flattop must stay at sea longer.

Such was the case with USS Theodore Roosevelt two years ago when her deployment began.

Dispatched to the Middle East and Indo-Pacific, CVN-71 spent 278 days deployed, operating in the U.S. 3rd, U.S. 5th and U.S. 7th fleet areas of responsibility. As previously reported by USNI News, she was the “second busiest carrier in the fleet over the last five years, just after the East Coast’s USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69).”

The U.S Navy has defended its Optimized Fleet Response Plan, which currently mandates a 36-month cycle of training, maintenance, and deployment, but critics have warned it could increase costs down the road by requiring lengthy maintenance periods, known as the Planned Incremental Availability.

The Big Stick

Known by the nickname “The Big Stick,” a reference to President Theodore Roosevelt’s famous foreign policy adage, “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” CVN-71 was launched in October 1984 and commissioned in October 1986. USS Theodore Roosevelt began her maiden deployment in late December 1988 with Carrier Air Wing Eight embarked.

Yet, that deployment almost never happened.

In 1976, then-President Gerald Ford had cancelled the order for the nuclear-powered flattop, seeking instead to build two conventionally powered carriers that could operate with vertical- and/or short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft.

President Jimmy Carter also initially opposed the building of the nuclear-powered carrier. However, he reversed course following the Iran hostage crisis, which highlighted the need for U.S. carrier battle groups to remote regions of the world. Construction of CVN-71 was finally authorized under the Pentagon’s Fiscal Year 1980 authorization bill.

While named for the man who remarked it was wise to speak softly and carry a big stick, Roosevelt was still one who didn’t shy away from doing his part. It was somewhat fitting that, just over two years after entering service, USS Theodore Roosevelt was deployed to participate in Operation Desert Shield and arrived in the Persian Gulf in mid-January 1991.

During the subsequent Operation Desert Storm, which began just the day before the carrier arrived on station, the CVN-71 took part in combat operations where pilots flew more than 4,200 sorties, more than any other carrier. In total, aircraft operating from USS Theodore Roosevelt dropped more than 4.8 million pounds of ordnance.

Aircraft operating from the carrier later took part in patrols during Operation Provide Comfort to support Kurdish forces in Iraq, and then a year later in Operation Deny Flight to support the U.S. no-fly zone over Bosnia. CVN-71 then became one of only a few nuclear-powered warships to that point to transit the Suez Canal when she was deployed to participate in Operation Southern Watch over Iraq.

USS Theodore Roosevelt began her seventh deployment just after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon, and joined the already-present USS Enterprise and USS Carl Vinson, and conducted attacks against al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. While deployed in the region, USS Theodore Roosevelt spent a total of 160 consecutive days at sea and broke the record for the most extended period underway of a U.S. carrier since World War II.

The 2024 deployment was more than 100 days longer!

From 2020 to 2024

In 2020, CVN-71 was sidelined by an outbreak of Covid-19, forcing the warship to undergo a complete cleaning in Guam while the crew recovered. The warship underwent a deep cleaning and was subsequently returned to service.

During her 2024 deployment, the supercarrier operated for nearly three months, from mid-July to mid-September 2024, in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in the Middle East to deter regional aggression. CVN-71 returned to San Diego in October.

USS Theodore Roosevelt is one of the most decorated warships of the post-Cold War era. Her awards include a Joint Meritorious Unit Award, three Navy Unit Commendations, five Battle Efficiency Awards (Battle “E”), two National Defense Service Medals, two Security Excellence Awards, and a Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, among others. The warship was also awarded a NATO Medal as well as Kuwait Liberation Medals from both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.