USS Nimitz aircraft carrier departs Bremerton for final underway before deployment

BREMERTON — The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier left Bremerton on Tuesday to embark on its final training mission prior to global deployment.

The warship will be at sea for about a month completing what's called the Composite Training Unit Exercise, or COMPTUEX for short. Bringing together its air wing and the destroyers and cruisers that surround Nimitz as part of its strike group, the exercise is the final proving ground for the carrier's crew to make sure it's ready for deployment. 

“COMPTUEX is high-intensity, scenario-based training that replicates what our upcoming deployment may look like,” said Capt. Craig Sicola, Nimitz's commanding officer. “It’s the culmination of the hard work and effort the crew has put forth over the past year and our chance to prove that Nimitz is ready to conduct sustained combat operations from the sea.”

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Nimitz will unite with its strike group — which includes cruisers from San Diego; destroyers from Everett and Pearl Harbor; and West Coast-based air squadrons, including EA-18G Growlers based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. 

Following the training, the Nimitz will embark on one of the last-ever deployments for the 1975-commissioned warship. It's to be decommissioned in 2026, according to Navy plans, though the ship's life could be extended.

The Nimitz's last deployment spanned 11 months and 99,000 miles during the earliest months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a year in overhaul at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, it returned to sea in November 2021. But the first underway lasted just three days, requiring emergency repairs for a "minor material deficiency" in Nimitz's propulsion plant.

Following repairs, the Nimitz and its crew bounced back for much at-sea training this year to get back on schedule for deployment.

Josh Farley is a reporter covering the military and Bremerton for the Kitsap Sun. He can be reached at 360-792-9227, josh.farley@kitsapsun.com or on Twitter at @joshfarley.