Iwo Jima Completes Deployment, Nimitz Heading Back To The United States

Here’s TWZ’s weekly carrier tracker monitoring America’s flattop fleet, including deployed Carrier Strike Groups (CSG) and Amphibious Ready Groups (ARG), using publicly available open-source information. Check out last week’s report here.

Amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima returned to Naval Station Norfolk on Saturday, wrapping a nearly 10-month deployment to the U.S. Southern Command-4th Fleet area of responsibility (AOR). During the 296-day deployment, the Iwo Jima ARG launched over 6,000 sorties, flew 1,850 flight hours, and transited more than 130,000 combined nautical miles. The ARG was the first group of expeditionary naval assets deployed to support Operation Southern Spear, which involved enhanced counter narcotics operations, and played a key role in Operation Absolute Resolve to exfiltrate ex-President Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela.

Aircraft carrier USS Nimitz departed Kingston, Jamaica, after a 4-day port call. Nimitz is now reportedly en route to the United States, according to the U.S. Embassy in Jamaica, “as it finished its 2026 Southern Seas goodwill tour.” The two ships supporting Nimitz, destroyer USS Gridley and oiler USNS Patuxent, also got underway after a brief stop in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Over the weekend, Nimitz embarked officials from the Dominican Republic for a distinguished visitor tour and Gridley fired the Mk 45 Mod 4 5-inch gun during a live fire demonstration.

The USS Nimitz (CVN 68) departed Kingston Harbor at 12pm on June 5 enroute to the United States as it finished its 2026 Southern Seas goodwill tour. Thank you for stopping in Kingston and strengthening the U.S.-Jamaica bilateral partnership as well as enhancing our… pic.twitter.com/RKimaXy6ia