USS Eisenhower, carrier strike group head to Mediterranean Sea

July 27 (UPI) -- The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, at sea for 192 days, has moved from the Middle East to the Mediterranean Sea, the Navy announced on Monday.

The carrier is operating within the U.S. Navy's 6th Fleet's area of responsibility as it eventually heads toward Norfolk, Va., its home port, the branch said in a press release.

Carrier Air Wing Three, part of Eisenhower's CSG, spent the weekend conducting day and night precision-guided munition and live ordinance strike drills in the Karavia Range of Greece.

The planes performed air-to-air combat maneuvers and tactical training with planes of Greece's navy, according to Navy officials.

"The Karavia Range provides a truly unique training opportunity," Capt. Trevor Estes, commander of the air wing, said in a press release.

"It gives my pilots the ability to train with precision-guided live ordnance in order to maintain current readiness levels and assure that the striking arm of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group will continue to be functionally sharp throughout our sustainment period at home," Estes said.

The CSG had been operating with the 5th Fleet in the Middle East since March, the start of increased tension between the United States and Iran.

The group, known as CSG-10, includes the flagship aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its eight-squadron Carrier Air Wing Three, eight guided-missile destroyers and about 7,500 personnel.

Ahead of the USS Eisenhower's departure from Middle East waters, the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group entered the 5th Fleet area of operations on Friday to maintain presence there.