USS George H.W. Bush deployed from her home port of Norfolk, Virginia, along with the destroyers Laboon and Truxton, a scheduled deployment in the fight against the Islamic State in the Middle East.
(FOX)- The U.S. military had been without an aircraft carrier in the region since late December.
Two Florida-based U.S. Navy cruisers, Philippine Sea and Hue City, were set to join the strike group at sea.
The carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and her strike group returned to Norfolk on December 30 after a seven-month deployment.
The Ike launched hundreds of airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria from both the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf.
It was not immediately clear whether the USS George H.W. Bush would conduct strikes from the eastern Mediterranean as Eisenhower did at the start of her deployment in June or proceed directly to the Persian Gulf.
While there is no U.S. aircraft carrier in the Middle East right now, there is a large deck U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship in the Persian Gulf with roughly a thousand Marines on board as well as helicopters and some jets to respond to a crisis, according to officials.