U.S. faces aircraft carrier shortage as tensions rise everywhere

With no East Coast flattops ready to deploy, Europe needs to fill gap, analysts say

20240701 USS Roosevelt in Thailand

The San Diego-based Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt arrives in Laem Chabang, Thailand on April 24. The carrier has since been redirected to the Red Sea. (U.S. Navy photo) 

KEN MORIYASU, Nikkei Asia diplomatic correspondent

NORFOLK, Virginia -- The U.S. Navy faces a shortage of aircraft carriers on the Atlantic coast with no East Coast-based ship ready for deployment to replace the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which has been responding against Houthi attacks in the Red Sea for months, as the country focuses on bolstering its presence in the Pacific Sea amid fraught tensions with China.

The U.S. Navy instead has redirected the USS Theodore Roosevelt, a San Diego-based carrier, to move from the South China Sea to the Red Sea as a stopgap measure, until the next East Coast-based carrier is ready.

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