An F/A-18 Super Hornet, assigned to Carrier Air Wing 1, launches from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the North Atlantic Sept. 18, 2018. The Truman left European waters Tuesday after a three-month operation that included conducting the first aircraft carrier patrol in the Arctic since the Cold War. (Thomas Gooley/U.S. Navy)
An F/A-18 Super Hornet, assigned to Carrier Air Wing 1, launches from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the North Atlantic Sept. 18, 2018. The Truman left European waters Tuesday after a three-month operation that included conducting the first aircraft carrier patrol in the Arctic since the Cold War. (Thomas Gooley/U.S. Navy)
The guided-missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke sails alongside the dry cargo and ammunition ship USNS Medgar Evers during a replenishment-at-sea in the Mediterranean Sea Nov. 12, 2018. (Justin Yarborough/U.S. Navy)
Sailors stand on the flight deck after launching an F/A-18F Super Hornet of Strike Fighter Squadron 211 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the North Atlantic, Sept. 18, 2018. (Anthony Flynn/U.S. Navy)
An F/A-18F Super Hornet of Strike Fighter Squadron 11, launches from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, Oct. 19, 2018. For the first time in nearly 30 years, a U.S. aircraft carrier entered the Arctic Circle. (Thomas Gooley/U.S. Navy)
A sailor stands on the flight deck during flight operations aboard the USS Harry S. Truman in the North Atlantic, Sept. 18, 2018. (Anthony Flynn/U.S. Navy)
NAPLES, Italy — The USS Harry S. Truman left European waters Tuesday after a three-month operation that included conducting the first aircraft carrier patrol in the Arctic since the Cold War.
The Truman took part in exercises and security missions in the North Atlantic Ocean as well as the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas while utilizing the “dynamic force employment” concept, which involves deploying warships in less-predictable patterns.
The Nimitz-class carrier’s foray into the icy Arctic regions followed the National Defense Strategy’s edict to focus less on combating violent extremism and more on countering increasingly assertive rivals Russia and China.
“The operations the strike group conducted across the region alongside our allies and partners — and withstanding a variety of austere environmental conditions in the high north — showcase our inherent flexibility,” Adm. James Foggo, head of Naval Forces Europe and Africa, said in a statement. “[They] prove that there are no international waters off limits to our forces.”
In April, the Truman deployed to the eastern Mediterranean and launched airstrikes against Islamic State the week after the U.S. led a missile strike against suspected chemical sites in Syria.
The Truman returned to Norfolk in mid-July and then resumed operations in Europe in September. The schedule was a change from previous years, when carriers would deploy to the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf for six or seven months before returning home.
The Truman took part in several exercises, including Baltic Operations and most recently Trident Juncture, the largest NATO war games since the Cold War. An estimated 65 warships, 250 aircraft and 50,000 alliance personnel participated.
wyland.scott@stripes.com Twitter: @wylandstripes
