The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68), flagship of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group (CSG), along with the guided-missile cruisers USS Princeton (CG 59) and USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) and guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett (DDG 104), completed a scheduled transit through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf Sept. 18. While in the Persian Gulf, the CSG will operate and train alongside regional and coalition partners, and provide naval aviation support to Operation Inherent Resolve. U.S. aircraft carriers and CSGs have been operating in the Persian Gulf routinely since the early 1990s in support of numerous operations and maritime security, most recently the Abraham Lincoln CSG in late 2019.
“The Nimitz Strike Group has been operating in the 5th Fleet area of operations (AOO) since July, and is at the peak of readiness,” said Rear Adm. Jim Kirk, commander of the Nimitz CSG. “We will continue our support to the joint force while we operate from the Persian Gulf alongside our regional and coalition partners.”
“As an inherently flexible force, the carrier’s presence demonstrates the U.S. Navy’s capability to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows in support of routine and contingency operations,” said Vice Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet, Combined Maritime Forces.
Carrier Strike Group 11 (CSG-11 or CARSTRKGRU 11) is a U.S. Navy carrier strike group. Carrier strike groups gain and maintain sea control as well as project naval airpower ashore. The aircraft carrier Nimitz is the strike group’s current flagship. Other units currently assigned to the group include the cruisers Lake Erie and Princeton, and Destroyer Squadron 9. The group participated in bilateral exercises Malabar 2005 and Malabar 2005, Key Resolve/Foal Eagle 2008, as well as joint exercise Valiant Shield 2007. The Carrier Strike Group commander exercises oversight of unit-level training, integrated training, and readiness for assigned ships and units.
USS Nimitz (CVN-68) is a supercarrier of the United States Navy, and the lead ship of her class. One of the largest warships in the world, she was laid down, launched, and commissioned as CVAN-68, “aircraft carrier, attack, nuclear powered”, but she was later redesignated as CVN-68, “aircraft carrier, multi-mission, nuclear-powered”, on 30 June 1975, as part of a fleet-wide realignment that year. The ship was named after World War II Pacific fleet commander Chester W. Nimitz, USN, (1885–1966), who was the Navy’s third fleet admiral. With the inactivation of USS Enterprise in 2012 and decommissioning in 2017, Nimitz is now the oldest U.S. aircraft carrier in service.
