Looming carrier gap will see both 5th and 7th Fleet sharing one carrier this spring

Sometime this spring, the U.S. Navy will have to settle with just one carrier strike group in either the Pacific or Middle East as another carrier gap looms.

US Navy 040706-N-5923E-098 An SH-60F Seahawk assigned to the Black Knights of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Four HS-4 flies as channel guard for the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis CVN 74
By U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Kevin Eichelberger [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

To mitigate that, Navy planners are toying with the idea of either extending the deployment of Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group by one extra month or to curtail the ongoing maintenance of USS Ronald Reagan in Japan.

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