Truman strike group deployment in Mediterranean to be extended

The Norfolk-based USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group’s deployment will be extended, the Department of Defense says.

The Truman, its airwing and the destroyers and cruiser in the group have been operating in the Adriatric and Aegan seas, and flying air policing missions in NATO member airspace to bolster the alliances eastern flank for several weeks.

And as the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the north and east continues, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin thinks that’s exactly where the Truman group needs to stay for now.

“He has made — he reviews the posture, literally every day,” the Pentagon’s top spokesman, John Kirby, said Thursday evening. “And he has decided that the Harry S. Truman and her strike group will stay in the Med for a while longer.”

Kirby did not say how long the Truman group, or recently deployed soldiers of the 82nd Airborne, would remain in the region.

“What we’re trying to be careful of is sort of our hard ending dates on these temporary deployments, because we want to be able to monitor the situation on the ground and make the best and most flexible decisions in real time,” Kirby said.

The Truman group deployed in December. The 82nd deployed earlier this year.

Normally, carrier strike group deployments run for six months, but are routinely extended — as was the USS Dwight D Eisenhower’s last year, when that Norfolk-based carrier and its airwing were tasked with providing air cover for the withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan.

Dave Ress, 757-247-4535, dress@dailypress.com