YOKOSUKA, Japan. The flagship aircraft carrier of a US Navy strike group left its home port in Japan on Thursday, concluding nearly nine years of deployment to the Indo-Pacific, where it played a key role in the US effort. .US to strengthen defense ties with Japan and other partners in the region.
The departure of the USS Ronald Reagan, one of the United States’ largest warships and a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, comes at a time of growing tension against an increasingly assertive China in the Indo-Pacific.
It will be replaced later this year by the USS George Washington, another Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. Japan has been accelerating the development of its military capabilities and significantly increasing joint naval operations with the United States.
Family and friends of the crew were on hand to bid farewell to the aircraft carrier at Yokosuka Naval Base after its final patrol mission earlier in the day.
Hundreds of sailors stood along the rails while others on the flight deck formed the Japanese saying “dewa mata,” or “see you.” The aircraft carrier was accompanied by two guided missile destroyers, the USS Robert Smalls and the USS Howard.
Speaking at the ceremony, the United States ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, assured a “seamless transition.”
“The USS Ronald Reagan and its crew have ensured that millions of people across the Indo-Pacific have been able to live their lives free of coercion, aggression and repression,” Emanuel later told reporters.
The USS Ronald Reagan first arrived in Yokosuka in 2015. Previously, during its deployment near the Korean Peninsula, the aircraft carrier contributed to Operation Tomodachi, following the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in northeastern Japan. .
USS Ronald Reagan was the only American aircraft carrier deployed as the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 5 under the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet, homeported outside of the US.
During his tenure, he participated in dozens of multilateral exercises and visited more than a dozen foreign ports, including his historic stop in Da Nang, Vietnam, last year.
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Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.
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