US to Send Aircraft Carrier Nimitz to Gulf

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 28, 2003

US to Send Aircraft Carrier Nimitz to Gulf

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The U.S. navy will send another battle group led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Nimitz to the Gulf region next Monday, further building up its forces in the region for a possible war with Iraq, local TV networks reported Thursday.

The eight-ship battle group, with 8,000 sailors, will set sail from San Diego, California and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to join several US aircraft carriers already in the region, including the Constellation which left San Diego in November, reported NBC4 TV.

The Nimitz, carrying about 70 F/A-18s and support aircraft, will leave San Diego on Monday with a guided-missile cruiser, a destroyer, a frigate and an oiler. Another cruiser will depart Pearl Harbor and join the battle group in the Pacific. Two other destroyers are scheduled to join the 95,000 ton Nimitz later in the year.

The Nimitz Battle Group has just finished nine months of training and preparation, which culminated with a compressed three-week training exercise designed to expedite the battle group's availability for deployment.

U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark said on Tuesday that the U.S. navy has deployed more ships overseas today than at any other time in the last dozen years.

"This morning, 51 percent of our ships are deployed overseas," Clark said when testifying at the Senate Armed Services Committee.He said six of the navy's 12 aircraft carriers were underway and two-thirds of its amphibious ships were carrying the Marines.

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