Overview
- Late May reporting shows USS Nimitz operating in the Caribbean on Exercise Southern Seas while transiting to Norfolk with a reduced air wing and only one destroyer escort, signaling it is not staged as a full high‑end combat task force.
- The Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit are beginning their return to the United States after nearly ten months conducting Operation Southern Spear and other SOUTHCOM missions.
- U.S. Southern Command announced that strikes on suspected narco boats continued in the Eastern Pacific in late May, with one strike killing two people as part of the broader counter‑drug campaign.
- The Navy has extended USS Nimitz’s service life and delayed its decommissioning into 2027 to cover carrier shortfalls caused by technical and schedule problems with the new Gerald R. Ford‑class ships.
- CENTCOM maintains blockade‑style measures that have redirected many commercial vessels, and the extended Caribbean posture has strained amphibious lift and prompted plans to use alternate platforms for future SOUTHCOM taskings.