Aircraft from the Freedom Fighters of Carrier Air Wing 7 fly in formation above the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Harry S. Truman, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mason from Destroyer Squadron 2, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Forrest Sherman and USS Arleigh Burke from Destroyer Squadron 28, and the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy while transiting the Atlantic Ocean. Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Brian M. Brooks/U.S. Navy
Aug. 31 (UPI) -- The Nimitz-class USS Harry S. Truman and USS Abraham Lincoln began dual-carrier qualification operations Wednesday in the western Atlantic Ocean, the U.S. Navy announced this week.
"By training and operating together, the USS Harry S. Truman and USS Abraham Lincoln strike groups enhance combat readiness and interoperability, and also demonstrate the inherent flexibility and scalability of carrier strike groups," Rear Adm. Gene Black, commander of the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group Commander, said in a press release.
"The opportunity to conduct complex, multi-unit training better prepares us to answer our nation's call to carry out a full range of missions, at anytime, anywhere around the globe," Black said.
The operations include a war-at-sea exercise with strike and air operation scenarios testing the readiness of units to carry out strike, air and formation operations.
"We are the best Navy in the world, and given the complex and competitive environment we are in, we can't take anything for granted or settle for the status quo," Abraham Lincoln Strike Group Commander Rear Adm. John Wade said.
Both ships are currently deployed, with the Truman conducting operations in the Atlantic and the Lincoln also in the Atlantic conducting Operational Test-1 to integrate the F-35C into operations with the carrier, other aircraft and Carrier Strike Group 12.
