US aircraft carrier deploys to Middle East to relieve USS George Washington

The USS Theodore Roosevelt, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, is headed for the Middle East to relieve another carrier already in theater as tensions with Iran persist.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt, the flagship vessel of Carrier Strike Group 9, left San Diego on Sunday, according to ship-watcher WarshipCam . The carrier will provide a substitute for Japan-based USS George Washington, which was dispatched to the U.S. Central Command (Centcom) region last month.

The U.S. Navy did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

The Roosevelt’s deployment comes as the U.S. has worked to boost the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz and as U.S. warships continue to enforce the naval blockade in the Arabian Sea.

Since July, U.S. forces have redirected 122 commercial vessels to ensure compliance with the effort, Centcom said in an update Friday .

U.S. military officials have said that more than 1 billion barrels of oil have passed through the key waterway over the past few months.

The U.S. has had at least one aircraft carrier in the Centcom region since President Trump kick-started the U.S. war with Iran in late February. The other aircraft carrier operating in the Middle East is the USS George H.W. Bush.

The USS George Washington was sent to the Middle East to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, whose deployment has come under fire from Democratic lawmakers and sailors’ family members following reports of rough onboard conditions and worsening mental health.

“We’ve been in conflict pretty much the whole time I’ve been in the seat, and that’s certainly stressed the force,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle told reporters last month. “I’m trying to work with my chain of command to put the extension process in a way that gives more certainty for planning.”

He added later, “If we know we’re going into harm’s way, we should be able to project with a little bit more fidelity how long the carrier and the strike group is going to stay on station.”

“We do these extensions in little chunks, and the families don’t see any endpoint so they can plan their own lives,” Caudle continued. “That creates a lot of stress for sailors.”