Can the Biden administration break the cycle of marathon naval deployments to the Mideast?
February 15
A sailor directs an F/A-18E Super Hornet on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Nimitz during flight operations on Jan. 17, 2021, in the Arabian Sea. (MC3Charles DeParlier/U.S. Navy)
WASHINGTON — By the time the crews of the aircraft carrier Nimitz and its escort ships step on the pier in Bremerton, Washington, they will have been away from home for almost a year, most of which will have been spent floating around in the Middle East.
Until the last decade, the U.S. Navy tried to limit deployments to six months to give crew members ample time for training and maintenance. But as the fleet contracted and demands remained steady — or occasionally grew — the length of Navy deployments exploded to as many as 10 months or more, forcing the fleet to fall back on extreme measures such as sending carriers out twice in the same 36-month deployment cycle, colloquially known as a “double-pump” deployment.