A U.S. aircraft carrier entered the contested South China Sea this week, following a surge deployment that had seen it retasked to the Middle East for combat operations.
In China, two aircraft carriers were spotted underway in the country’s coastal waters. A Japanese destroyer, bearing the same name as an aircraft carrier that took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, visited the Hawaiian port.
Newsweek’s weekly update maps aircraft carrier movements in the strategic Indo-Pacific region. As of November 29, the locations of 11 vessels were publicly available via military disclosures or open-source satellite imagery. The U.S. military has the world’s largest aircraft carrier fleet, with 11 in service. China ranks second with three “flat-tops.”
U.S. Navy
USS George Washington: Yokosuka, Japan
As of Wednesday, the George Washington remained pierside at Yokosuka naval base, its home port in the Greater Tokyo Area, for its second deployment to Japan. It returned to Yokosuka last week following a 2,117-day overhaul in Virginia.
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USS Abraham Lincoln: South China Sea
The U.S. Seventh Fleet, which has an operating area that covers the Western Pacific Ocean, confirmed to Newsweek on Friday that the Abraham Lincoln and its carrier strike group were currently underway in the South China Sea.
The naval group transited eastward through the Singapore Strait on Wednesday night following separate port visits in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
USS Carl Vinson: Central Pacific Ocean
The website uscarriers.net, which records the deployment history of America’s carrier fleet, said the Carl Vinson conducted a replenishment-at-sea while underway in waters southwest of the Hawaiian Islands on Thursday.
The California-based warship left its home port—Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego—on November 18 for a deployment to the Pacific Ocean.
USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan: Bremerton, Washington
A satellite image captured on Wednesday showed two aircraft carriers pierside at Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington. Photos taken by the U.S. Navy and by a local photographer confirmed that the two flat-tops were the Ronald Reagan and the Nimitz.
USS Theodore Roosevelt: San Diego, California
There was one aircraft carrier moored at North Island as of Thursday, according to available satellite imagery. The Theodore Roosevelt returned to its home port from an overseas deployment in mid-October, U.S. Defense Department photographs showed.
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People’s Liberation Army Navy
CNS Liaoning: Yellow Sea
Newsweek‘s review of satellite imagery showed the Liaoning, the Chinese military’s first operational flat-top, was not pierside at its home port in Qingdao, in China‘s eastern Shandong province, on Friday, pointing to a likely recent deployment to the Yellow Sea.
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CNS Shandong: Sanya, Hainan
A satellite image captured on Wednesday showed the Shandong, China’s second operational aircraft carrier, docked in Sanya on China’s southern island of Hainan.
The Shandong returned from a deployment in the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea on November 16.
CNS Fujian: Bohai Sea
The Fujian, which is China’s third and most advanced aircraft carrier, recently sailed for its fifth sea trial in Bohai Sea and was captured off China’s northeastern coast on Thursday.
The yet-to-be-commissioned warship was also sent to the Bohai Sea in September during its fourth sea trial.
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
Sentinel Hub
JS Kaga: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
The Kaga, which recently completed onboard trials with F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter jets off the southern coast of California, arrived at Pearl Harbor on Tuesday. It was originally designed as a helicopter destroyer but is undergoing conversion to a light aircraft carrier.
The Kaga‘s namesake was an aircraft carrier that served with the Imperial Japanese Navy. on December 7, 1941, it launched the air raid on Pearl Harbor that later led the United States to declare war on Japan, its symbolic visit to Hawaii now serving as a sign of the deep political and military trust in the U.S.-Japan alliance.
JS Izumo: Yokohama, Japan
A ship spotter in Japan told Newsweek on Friday that the Izumo, the sister ship of the Kaga, remained at a shipyard in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo. The Izumo is undergoing a major refit as part of its planned conversion from a helicopter destroyer into a light aircraft carrier.
