This gap was anticipated more than a year ago, as the Navy put together the schedule to move Reagan to Japan and replace Reagan in San Diego with Roosevelt, allowing Washington to move from Japan to Newport News for mid-life refueling.
The big cause of this gap is the stress of almost 15 years of combat deployments on the carrier fleet. Plus the lag in new carrier construction between the GHW Bush (last Nimitz) and Ford (new carrier class).
The Ford was supposed to be in service by now, replacing Enterprise. It’s still got a long ways to go, especially since it will now be subjected to shock-testing.
Ok thanks for the information. Makes me feel a bit better. Still though if I may say the “optics” of this look bad. Right in the midst of Putin’s bravado we are seen effectively pulling out.
Of course I blame the crazy budget cuts that cut deep into the military while leaving pet pork intact, i.e. the Democrat modus operandi.