U.S. Navy Carrier to Visit Jamaica as Final Overseas Port Call

The United States Navy’s oldest active nuclear-powered supercarrier will arrive in the Port of Kingston, Jamaica, on Monday and remain anchored for five days as part of its Southern Seas 2026 maritime cooperation deployment. The vessel departed Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington, in March during its home-port shift to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.

Commissioned in May 1975, the carrier completed its final overseas deployment last December and is scheduled for decommissioning next March after nearly 52 years of service.

Operations in the Caribbean While operating in the U.S.

Southern Command area of responsibility, the carrier has visited multiple Latin American nations and conducted joint maritime exercises with regional partners. Because the ship is too large to transit the Panama Canal, it sailed around South America via the Strait of Magellan in late April.

The carrier reached the Caribbean Sea earlier this month. It is the first U.S. Navy aircraft carrier to operate in the region since another carrier was sent to the Middle East in February.

Jamaica is expected to be the final foreign port of call on the carrier’s multinational goodwill tour, the U.S. Embassy in Jamaica confirmed. During the Kingston visit, government officials, members of the Jamaica Defense Force, and local university students will tour the ship to observe carrier operations.

Crew members will also go ashore. In the past week, delegations from Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Guyana, and Grenada visited the carrier. The United States Navy has not announced how long the carrier will remain in the Caribbean. The service continues to support Operation Southern Spear, its narcotics-interdiction mission in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

Two amphibious ships and a Marine expeditionary unit are scheduled to return to Norfolk this month after a 10-month deployment.