USS Nimitz Leaves San Diego on Final Deployment

Sam LaGrone – March 26, 2025 8:39 PM

USS Nimitz (CVN-68) leaving San Diego Bay on March 26, 2025. Screen shot via San Diego Web Cam

The Navy’s oldest aircraft carrier departed San Diego Bay on Wednesday for what is expected to be its last deployment, USNI News has learned.

The 49-year-old USS Nimitz (CVN-68) pulled away from the carrier pier at Naval Air Station North Island after arriving in San Diego on Monday. The carrier left Wednesday morning local time with sailors manning the rails, according to ship spotters. The carrier left last week from its homeport in Bremerton, Wash., to travel to San Diego for final preparations before flying on Carrier Air Wing 17 and joining with its escorts.

In addition to CVW 17, Destroyer Squadron 9 is embarked on Nimitz overseeing guided-missile destroyers USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG-54), USS Gridley (DDG-101), USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG-108) and USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG-123). Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee is joining the strike group on its maiden deployment after commissioning in 2023.

Following the carrier’s deployment, Nimitz is set to shift homeports to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., in 2026 ahead of its planned decommissioning, USNI News reported earlier this month. The carrier last deployed in 2023 for seven months to the Western Pacific.

Nimitz’s departure follows the reassignment of San Diego-based carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) from its current Pacific deployment to the Middle East.

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Oldest Cutter Not Looking Too Bad at 61 Years Young

Oldest Cutter Not Looking Too Bad at 61 Years Young

Posted on March 18, 2025 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

The seniormost blue-water cutter, the USCGC Reliance (WMEC-615), has been in service almost continuously since she was commissioned on 20 June 1964, with the only break being regular yard periods and a 20-month Major Maintenance Availability from April 1987 to January 1989.

Constructed across a 22-month period for the sum of $4,920,804 by the Todd Houston Shipbuilding Corporation, the country has gotten its money’s worth out of Hull 615.

The lead ship of her class of 16 cutters, she originally carried a CODAG propulsion system and a 3″/50 gun forward as well as weight and space reserved for ASW weapons to serve as a patrol escort in the event of WWIII.

This black and white photo shows newly the commissioned Reliance (WMEC-615) with an HH-52 Sea Guard helicopter landing on its pad and davits down with one of its small boats deployed. Notice the lack of smokestack and paint scheme pre-dating the Racing Stripe or “U.S. Coast Guard” paint schemes. She has a 3″/50 forward as well as 20mm cannons for AAA work and weight and space for Mousttraps, a towed sonar, and Mk.32 ASW tubes, although they were never fitted. U.S. Coast Guard photo.

After her $16 million MMA in the late 80s, she lost her 3-incher, replaced with an early model manned MK38 25mm chain gun, while her engines were replaced with twin Alco diesels. Keep in mind that the MMA was supposed to just add 10-to-15 years to her lifespan, with a planned retirement along those lines in 2009-2015.

Post MMA

The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Reliance (WMEC 615) interdicts a low-profile vessel carrying more than $5 million in illicit narcotics in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, Feb. 15, 2024. Patrolling in support of Joint Interagency Task Force-South, the Reliance crew stopped two drug trafficking ventures, detaining six suspected traffickers and preventing nearly 4,000 pounds of cocaine and 5,400 pounds of marijuana, worth more than $57 million, from entering the United States. (U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of Reliance)

She has earned at least four Coast Guard Unit Commendations, a Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation, multiple Joint Meritorious Unit Awards, and numerous USCG “E” ribbons. She has put out oilrig fires, saved at least four ships adrift on the sea, served on the Campeche Patrols for three years, picked up thousands of Haitian and Cuban migrants in the Florida Straits, bagged over 400 tons of MJ and $50M worth of cocaine, and just generally been a floating mensch.

Reliance just completed a 60-day patrol in the Florida Straits, Windward Passage, and Gulf of America, and managed to have a short video captured of her underway in the Gulf.

At some point in the coming years, she will be replaced by the future USCGC Reliance (WMSM-925), a Heritage-class 360-foot Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPCs), and will be the fifth vessel to bear the distinguished name going back to 1861.

Perhaps the old girl will be retained as a museum, with the new National USCG Museum in New London being a good candidate.

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Nuclear submarine ‘breaks Royal Navy’s longest patrol record’ – 204 days at sea

The Vanguard-class submarine reportedly spent 204 days under the waves.

By James Knuckey

18:59, Tue, Mar 18, 2025 | UPDATED: 18:59, Tue, Mar 18, 2025

HMS Vanguard spent 204 days at sea, according to reports (Image: Getty)

Submariners have returned from what is believed to be the longest deployment of a nuclear-armed submarine in Royal Navy history. A Vanguard-class boat reportedly returned to its Faslane base on Monday after 204 days under the waves, according to Navy Lookout.

The vessel, thought to be HMS Vanguard, has a crew of around 130 who wouldn’t have seen sunlight or fresh air for almost seven months during the mammoth deployment. The Royal Navy itself says life in the Submarine Service, also known as the Silent Service, “isn’t for the faint-hearted”. “You’ll be pushed to your limits, but you’ll be rewarded for it too,” the Navy says on its website.

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