USS George H.W. Bush completes pre-deployment exercise

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush and its strike group finished a pre-deployment training event that prepares naval forces for long-term sustained combat, according to the U.S. Navy.

The carrier completed Composite Training Unit Exercise, or COMPTUEX, on March 5, certifying and readying the carrier strike group for deployment for U.S. Fleet Forces Command.

“COMPTUEX is the certification event for the strike group to let us know we are ready for major combat operations around the world,” said Rear Adm. Alexis Walker, commander of Carrier Strike Group 10. “It brings the entire strike group team together and enables us to operate as we would when we’re forward deployed.”

The event takes place over several weeks, during which naval units undergo air, surface, subsurface and cyber warfare training, operating alongside allied forces.

Carrier Air Wing 7, which is assigned to the Bush and comprises nine squadrons totaling approximately 2,400 sailors and aviators, also participated in COMPTUEX.

The air wing flew 1,586 sorties and logged 693 arrested landings during the day and 682 at night.

The Navy does not comment on future operations, so it’s unknown when and if the Bush will officially deploy, and if so, where it will go.

But Hunter Stires, a senior fellow at the Center for Maritime Strategy who served as a maritime strategist to former Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, believed the carrier’s COMPTUEX completion meant it was gearing up for a deployment to the Middle East, potentially to relieve the USS Gerald R. Ford.

“It is past time for Ford and her strike group to come home,” Stires said. “Having performed superbly in combat operations in two theaters, the sailors of the Ford strike group have had their deployment extended twice and have been away from their families far longer than is healthy for the force to sustain.”

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The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, began its most recent deployment on June 24, 2025, when it left Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, for a regularly scheduled deployment to the U.S. European Command area of responsibility.

The Ford and its strike group, which includes nearly 4,500 sailors, traveled to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility in November 2025 in support of what the Pentagon labeled counter-narcotics efforts.

The carrier was stationed in the Caribbean when the U.S. launched military strikes against Venezuela and captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, 2026.

In February, the carrier headed toward the Middle East as tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated following unsuccessful talks over halting Iran’s nuclear program.

As of Monday, the carrier has been at sea for 258 days.

Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby recently told lawmakers during a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting that the Ford is likely to notch an 11-month extended deployment, which has the potential to set a new record for the longest at-sea U.S. Navy deployment ever.

The current record is held by the USS Midway, which was deployed in April 1972 for Operation Linebacker during the Vietnam War and returned in March 1973, recording a 332-day at-sea deployment, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command.