USS Ronald Reagan will relocate to Bremerton from Yokosuka, Japan next year

Peiyu Lin, Kitsap Sun
Updated ·2 min read
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People leave Waterman Dock after watching the USS Ronald Reagan pass by on its way to a year-long overhaul at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in January 2012. The Reagan will come to Bremerton in 2024 twelve years after the carrier's last visit to the Sinclair Inlet.
People leave Waterman Dock after watching the USS Ronald Reagan pass by on its way to a year-long overhaul at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in January 2012. The Reagan will come to Bremerton in 2024 twelve years after the carrier's last visit to the Sinclair Inlet.
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Editor's note: This story was originally published in May.  We are republishing it as we look back at some of our most-read stories of the year.

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) will come to Bremerton from Japan next year after nearly 10 years of service in the Western Pacific, according to the Navy.

On April 28 Naval Air Forces announced that Nimitz-class carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) will return to the 7th Fleet and replace USS Ronald Reagan as the forward-deployed aircraft carrier in Yokosuka, Japan, in 2024.

Before George Washington heads back to Japan next year, Ronald Reagan will leave Yokosuka and relocate to Bremerton to conduct a scheduled docking and planned incremental availability period at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, according to the Navy's statement.

The Navy declined to confirm a specific timeline of when the Reagan will arrive in Bremerton.

USS George Washington was going through its mid-life refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) at the Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding shipyard in Virginia, the Navy said.

This will not be the first time USS Ronald Reagan has docked in Bremerton. Commissioned in 2003, the Reagan has participated in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and has been deployed to the Middle East and Western Pacific area, the U.S. 5th Fleet and 7th Fleet's areas of operations throughout its career.

The carrier departed San Diego for Washington state in 2012 to conduct a planned docking incremental availability, a 12-month repair and maintenance worth $210 million, at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. The ship completed the maintenance and returned to San Diego in 2013.

In 2015, Ronald Reagan's homeport was shifted from San Diego to Yokosuka, Japan, and the carrier has served as the U.S.'s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier since then, according to the Navy.

Before Ronald Reagan's move to Japan in 2015, USS George Washington was the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be forward-deployed in Japan, from 2008 to 2015.

Bremerton is now the homeport of the 1975-commissioned USS Nimitz (CVN 68), the lead ship of the Nimitz-class carriers and the oldest active U.S. aircraft carrier. Nimitz left Bremerton in November last year for a global deployment and is scheduled to return to Bremerton this summer.

Read more: USS Theodore Roosevelt departs Bremerton for San Diego after 18-month overhaul

Reporter Peiyu Lin covers the military for the Kitsap Sun. She can be reached at pei-yu.lin@kitsapsun.com or on Twitter @peiyulintw.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: USS Ronald Reagan to relocate to Bremerton from Japan in 2024