Photos Show US Navy's Double Aircraft Carrier Operations in Atlantic
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
The United States recently deployed two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, USS Gerald R. Ford and USS George H.W. Bush, in the Atlantic following a similar operation by China in the Pacific as both countries compete for naval dominance across the world.
Why It Matters
While the U.S. Navy possesses the largest fleet of aircraft carriers in the world—with 11 vessels in service—China operates more than 370 ships and submarines, including two aircraft carriers in active service, making it the world's largest navy by hull count, according to the Pentagon.
Last month, the Chinese navy simultaneously deployed its aircraft carriers—CNS Liaoning and CNS Shandong—in the broader western Pacific. This came as one of the two American aircraft carriers operating in the region, USS Nimitz, was redeployed to the Middle East.
What To Know
According to a set of photos released by the U.S. Navy on Wednesday, the Gerald R. Ford and the George H.W. Bush were seen operating side by side on June 27 at an undisclosed location in the Atlantic, where they conducted resupply operations and ammunition transfers.
The United States aircraft carriers USS Gerald R. Ford, left, and USS George H.W. Bush, right, conducting resupply operations while underway in the Atlantic Ocean on June 27.
The United States aircraft carriers USS Gerald R. Ford, left, and USS George H.W. Bush, right, conducting resupply operations while underway in the Atlantic Ocean on June 27.
Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Maxwell Orlosky/U.S. Navy
The Gerald R. Ford departed Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, on June 24 for a "regularly scheduled deployment" to the U.S. European Command, forming a strike group with five destroyers to support economic prosperity, national security and defense, the Navy said.
Photos taken by ship spotters show that the George H.W. Bush departed Naval Station Norfolk on June 10 and returned on Tuesday. While underway in the Atlantic, the aircraft carrier conducted "Tailored Ship's Training Availability and Final Evaluation Problem," the Navy said.
The training—referred to as TSTA/FEP—is designed to build crew operating proficiency and to enhance the ship's ability to self-train, according to the Navy. It prepares the ship and crew for integration into a strike group through a wide range of mission-critical operations.
The Gerald R. Ford, commissioned in 2017 and becoming operational four years later, is the lead ship of the next generation of the U.S.'s aircraft carriers. The George H.W. Bush is one of 10 vessels in the older Nimitz-class, which entered service between 1975 and 2009.
As the successor to the Nimitz class, the Gerald R. Ford-class features design improvements, including the ability to launch more aircraft and generate more electrical power for shipboard systems. The Navy plans to procure six new aircraft carriers, including the lead ship itself.
The United States aircraft carriers USS Gerald R. Ford, front, and USS George H.W. Bush conducting ammunition transfers while underway in the Atlantic Ocean on June 27.
The United States aircraft carriers USS Gerald R. Ford, front, and USS George H.W. Bush conducting ammunition transfers while underway in the Atlantic Ocean on June 27.
Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Maxwell Orlosky/U.S. Navy
Meanwhile, China is testing its most advanced aircraft carrier, CNS Fujian, which features electromagnetic catapults for launching aircraft, similar to those on the Gerald R. Ford. The Pentagon previously assessed that the Fujian would be operational in the first half of 2025.
What People Are Saying
The U.S. Second Fleet announced on June 24: "The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group provides combatant commanders and America's civilian leaders increased capacity to underpin American security and economic prosperity, deter adversaries, and project power on a global scale through sustained operations at sea."
The U.S. Navy said in a fact sheet last updated on February 27: "Often the presence of an aircraft carrier has deterred potential adversaries from striking against U.S. interests. Aircraft carriers support and operate aircraft that engage in attacks on airborne, afloat and ashore targets that threaten free use of the sea and engage in sustained power projection operations in support of U.S. and coalition forces."
What Happens Next
It remains to be seen whether the U.S. will deploy a second aircraft carrier to the western Pacific to reinforce its naval presence as China's navy continues to expand its operations.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
2 hours ago
- Newsweek
Map Shows States With the Most, Least High School Graduates
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. West Virginia has the highest rate of graduation among public high school students, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). With score of higher than 90 percent, the state led the way on public high school graduation, with Tennessee, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts close behind. Newsweek has contacted the Department of Education via email for comment. Why It Matters High school graduation rates in the country have been on the rise based on NCES data. Between 2011 to 2012, the average adjusted cohort graduation rate (ACGR) for public high school students was 80 percent, but in 2021 to 2022, that number was 87 percent. While the data shows a rise in graduation rates as a whole, the increase has not been completely steady, with the coronavirus pandemic knocking the average ACGR down slightly. Following the passage of President Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" earlier this month, education experts have voiced concern over what ramifications the wide-reaching legislation could have on children and schools. Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cuts could impact school budgets, experts warn, while the continued mass deportation of immigrants may strain schools as they try to support students whose family members have been detained. What To Know The NCES calculated the graduation rates in each state based on an ACGR—the percentage of public school students who graduate within four years of starting ninth grade with a regular diploma. For students with "the most significant cognitive disabilities," the score was measured by those with a state-defined alternate high school diploma. There was no available information for New Mexico or Oklahoma. While there were also other states that had ACGRs of 90, including Texas and Missouri, these states still fell into the category of ACGRs between 80 to less than 90 percent—suggesting these numbers may have been rounded up. States with the lowest ACGR include Arizona (77 percent), Alaska (78 percent), and Idaho (80 percent). Puerto Rico had the lowest ACGR across the board at 74 percent. Why the ACGR varies widely between states is multi-factorial. One reason is that states "have their own graduation requirements," Christopher Lubienski, director of the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University and elected member of the National Academy of Education, told Newsweek. For example, up until this school year, students in Massachusetts had to pass state-administered tests in English, mathematics, and a science in order to graduate, Richard Murnane, a professor of education and society at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, told Newsweek. "This is no longer the case, so Massachusetts graduation rates will be higher this year." Graduation rates may also vary due to the differences in numbers of private schools in states. "In some states with fewer private schools, most students go to public schools, so the ACGR there is more of a reflection of the total school population," Lubienski said. "But in other states where many students go to independent schools, it could be that the students most likely to complete school enroll in those non-public options, leaving public schools with more students who are less likely to complete school." These factors make it difficult to make accurate conclusions on what the ACGR says about education in each state, Lubienski told Newsweek. Broadly, factors that cause variation in education outcomes in states include "family incomes," Murnane said, pointing to Massachusetts as "a quite wealthy state." He also said that high school graduation rates depend on the percentage of students who are immigrants. "Many immigrants come with low English skills and have trouble doing high-school-level work. Others move back to their original countries before they graduate," Murnane said. He added that "when and where the economy is very strong, drop out rates tend to be higher because students leave school to take jobs." What People Are Saying Christopher Lubienski, director of the Center for Evaluation & Education Policy at Indiana University and elected member of the National Academy of Education, told Newsweek: "A more useful number would be looking at this issue over time. Assuming that a given state has maintained its same graduation requirement, changes over time would give us some indication as to whether schools are performing better or worse." He added: "Students are more likely to successfully complete school if they attend a well-resourced school, and have suitable family, community and school support systems in place." Richard Murnane, a professor of education and society at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, told Newsweek: "States differ in how well they track high school graduation rates. The data comes from individual high schools. High schools have incentives to state that students who leave prior to graduation have 'transferred' to another school rather than state they have 'dropped out.' Some states check on the accuracy of the reports from individual schools much more carefully than other states do." Mavis Sanders, a senior research scholar of Black Children and Families at Child Trends, nonprofit, non-partisan research organization, told Newsweek: "Graduation rates are complex outcomes shaped by a variety of factors, including the availability of jobs and career opportunities for individuals without high school diplomas, graduation requirements which differ by state, as well as specific supports and pathways to graduation—such as those implemented in states like Tennessee." She added: "Graduation rates also vary significantly across student groups and are influenced by factors such as socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, and English language proficiency. As such, graduation rates reflect broader issues of educational access and opportunity."
Los Angeles Times
14 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Osprey came back from the brink once. Now chicks are dying in nests, and some blame overfishing
GLOUCESTER POINT, Va. — Stepping onto an old wooden duck blind in the middle of the York River, Bryan Watts looks down at a circle of sticks and pine cones on the weathered, guano-spattered platform. It's a failed osprey nest, taken over by diving terns. 'The birds never laid here this year,' said Watts, near the mouth of Virginia's Chesapeake Bay. 'And that's a pattern we've been seeing these last couple of years.' Watts has a more intimate relationship with ospreys than most people have with a bird — he has climbed to their nests to free them from plastic bags, fed them by hand and monitored their eggs with telescopic mirrors. The fish-eating raptor known for gymnastic dives and whistle-like chirps is an American conservation success story. After pesticides and other hazards nearly eliminated the species from much of the country, the hawk-like bird rebounded after the banning of DDT in 1972 and now numbers in the thousands in the U.S. But Watts has documented an alarming trend. The birds, which breed in many parts of the U.S., are failing to successfully fledge enough chicks around their key population center of the Chesapeake Bay. The longtime biologist blames the decline of menhaden, a small schooling fish critical to the osprey diet. Without menhaden to eat, chicks are starving and dying in nests, Watts said. Watts's claim has put him and environmental groups at odds with the fishing industry, trade unions and sometimes government regulators. Menhaden is valuable for fish oil, fish meal and agricultural food as well as bait. U.S. fishermen have caught at least 1.1 billion pounds of menhaden every year since 1951. Members of the industry tout its sustainability and said the decline in osprey may have nothing to do with fishing. But without help, the osprey population could tumble to levels not seen since the dark days of DDT, said Watts, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. 'The osprey are yelling pretty loudly that, hey, there's not enough menhaden for us to reproduce successfully,' Watts said. 'And we should be listening to them to be more informed fully on the fisheries side, and we should take precaution on the fisheries management side. But that hasn't won the day at this point.' Watts, who has studied osprey on the Chesapeake for decades, has backed his claims of population decline by publishing studies in scientific journals. He said it boils down to a simple statistic — to maintain population, osprey pairs need to average 1.15 chicks per year. Osprey were reproducing at that level in the 1980s, but today in some areas around the main stem of the Chesapeake, it's less than half of that, Watts said. In particularly distressed areas, they aren't even reproducing at one-tenth that level, he said. And the decline in available menhaden matches the areas of nesting failure, Watts said. Also called pogies or bunkers, the oily menhaden are especially important for young birds because they are more nutritious than other fish in the sea. Osprey 'reproductive performance is inextricably linked to the availability and abundance' of menhaden, Watts wrote in a 2023 study published in Frontiers in Marine Science. Conservationists have been concerned for years, saying too many menhaden have been removed to maintain their crucial role in the ocean food chain. Historian H. Bruce Franklin went so far as to title his 2007 book on menhaden 'The Most Important Fish In The Sea.' Menhaden help sustain one of the world's largest fisheries, worth more than $200 million at the docks in 2023. Used as bait, the fish are critical for valuable commercial targets such as Maine lobster. They're also beloved by sportfishermen. The modern industry is dominated by Omega Protein, a Reedville, Virginia, company that is a subsidiary of Canadian aquaculture giant Cooke Inc. The harvesting of the menhaden is performed by an American company, Ocean Harvesters, which is based in Reedville and contracts with Omega, which handles processing. The companies pushed back at the idea that fishing is the cause of osprey decline, although they did acknowledge that fewer menhaden are showing up in some parts of the bay. Federal data show osprey breeding is in decline in many parts of the country, including where menhaden is not harvested at all, said Ben Landry, an Omega spokesperson. Climate change, pollution and development could be playing a role, said Landry and others with the company. Blaming fishing 'just reeks of environmental special interest groups having an influence over the process,' Landry said. The menhaden fishery is managed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, an interstate body that crafts rules and sets fishing quotas. Prompted by questions about ospreys, it created a work group to address precautionary management of the species in the Chesapeake Bay. In April, this group proposed several potential management approaches, including seasonal closures, restrictions on quotas or days at sea, and limitations on kinds of fishing gear. The process of creating new rules could begin this summer, said James Boyle, fishery management plan coordinator with the commission. The osprey population has indeed shown declines in some areas since 2012, but it's important to remember the bird's population is much larger than it was before DDT was banned, Boyle said. 'There are big increases in osprey population since the DDT era,' Boyle said, citing federal data showing a six-fold increase in osprey populations along the Atlantic Coast since the 1960s. To a number of environmental groups, any decline is too much. This irritates some labor leaders who worry about losing more jobs as the fishing industry declines. Kenny Pinkard, retired vice president of UFCW Local 400's executive board and a longtime Virginia fisherman, said he feels the industry is being scapegoated. 'There are some people who just don't want to see us in business at all,' he said. But Chris Moore, Virginia executive director for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the country risks losing an iconic bird if no action is taken. He said Watts's studies show that the osprey will fail without access to menhaden. 'Osprey have been a success story,' Moore said. 'We're in a situation where they're not replacing their numbers. We'll actually be in a situation where we're in a steep decline.' Whittle and Breed write for the Associated Press. Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Yahoo
Navy identifies special warfare sailor killed while parachuting
Navy officials have identified the sailor killed in a parachute accident on Tuesday as Special Warfare Boat Operator 2nd class Noah Tobin. Assigned to Special Boat Team 20, Tobin was killed while taking part in a parachute training event in Porterville, California, a Naval Special Warfare spokesperson said. Tobin was attending the Naval Parachute Course that is run by the Naval Special Warfare Advanced Training Command at the time of his death, the spokesperson said. The command has temporarily paused parachute training to conduct a safety standdown. The cause of the accident is unknown and investigators are looking into the incident. Special warfare boat operators are the full-time crew of the specialized watercraft the Navy uses for it special operations teams, including clandestine maritime insertions and extractions. Along with driving and maintaining the boats, main regularly train in tactical skills including parachuting. Tobin enlisted in the Navy in October 2021 and attended Navy Basic Special Warfare Training at Coronado, California from December 2021 to November 2023, according to his official record. 'We mourn the loss of our sailor, and our thoughts are with his family, friends, and colleagues during this difficult time,' the spokesperson said. 'Naval Special Warfare is providing grief counseling and assistance to the sailor's family and teammates.' The Air Force fitness test may soon include 2-mile runs twice a year 'War Thunder' continues to live up to its reputation for OPSEC violations Guardsmen sent to LA are 130 miles east of the city doing drug busts Lightning Carriers: The Marines' secret weapon in the Pacific Pentagon releases details of 'Midnight Hammer' strikes against Iran
