Aug. 2, 2021 / 3:36 PM

USS Carl Vinson, carrier strike group deploy from San Diego

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, pictured in the Pacific Ocean in July, left San Diego for deployment Monday, carrying F-35C aircraft for the first time. Photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Isaiah Williams/U.S. Navy

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, pictured in the Pacific Ocean in July, left San Diego for deployment Monday, carrying F-35C aircraft for the first time. Photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Isaiah Williams/U.S. Navy

Aug. 2 (UPI) -- The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and its strike group will deploy from San Diego on Monday, the U.S. Navy announced.

The Vinson's carrier strike group is the first to deploy with F-35C Lightning II fighter aircraft aboard, as well as CMV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, USNI, KNSD-TV and The Times of San Diego reported.

Although details of the deployment were not announced, ships traveling from the West Coast often enter the Indo-Pacific theater of operations.

Escorts in its strike group include destroyers USS Higgins, USS O'Kane, USS Chafee, USS Dewey, USS Stockdale and USS Michael Murphy, as well as the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain.

The deployment was scheduled for 3:00pm on Monday.

In June, the USS Carl Vinson was in Hawaii for training purposes, after it completed a 17-month maintenance period Washington State, receiving upgrades to accommodate the F-35Cs.

The Nimitz-class, nuclear-powered vessel, commissioned in 1982, is 1,092 feet long, and carries a crew of 3,542, with another 2,460 comprising its air wing.

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