The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, has successfully completed a significant ammunition off-load operation involving two other carriers and a dry cargo ship, according to a press release.

From August 22 to 30, the Eisenhower transferred 3 million pounds of ammunition to the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), and the USNS William McLean (T-AKE 12) in the Atlantic Ocean.

The operation involved 1,764 helicopter deliveries, using MH-60S Seahawk helicopters to move the ordnance between the ships.

Safety was a key focus throughout the operation. “We are moving a lot of heavy equipment and explosives, so safety is paramount,” said Master Chief Aviation Ordnanceman Jerome Ruffins, who led the weapons department during the off-load. The crew conducted safety briefings before each stage of the operation to ensure everything was carried out smoothly.

Cmdr. Kent Davis, who heads the weapons department on the Eisenhower, noted the teamwork required to complete such a complex task. “It was a huge effort for the whole team to come together and make it happen,” he said, acknowledging the dedication of the sailors involved.

Chief Aviation Ordnanceman Alexis Armstrong described the off-load as a major event for the crew, saying, “Off-loads and on-loads are like the Super Bowl for us,” highlighting the importance of the operation to those on board.

According to a U.S. Navy statement:

“In order to ensure the success of the off-load, leadership emphasised safety as the top priority for the entire crew. The ammunition off-load was a success and the weapons department chain of command was pleased with the commitment and effort from their Sailors.

The Nimitz-class aircraft carriers USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) and the Ford-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) are underway in the Atlantic Ocean for an ammunition transfer between the three ships and the Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship USNS William McLean (T-AKE 12).”

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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83 COMMENTS

    • Good question. Maybe a show of force for Putin & the Iranian proxies threatening Israel & merchant shipping? Depends of course where the Truman & Ford go next.
      Strange to happen at sea. Did Eisenhower have a fault necessetating returning to homeport & another carrier covering her deployment?

      • Three carriers together is an impressive show of force, but my question (badly posed) was about why did they de-ammunition ‘the Eisenhower’?

        • The same reason the Zumwalt destroyers have been left neutered. Your government is bankrupt and cannot afford to arm them.

        • I served on the Kitty Hawk CV63 , we would always take on munitions and other supplies, both for readiness training/certification and because it’s often impractical politicly and strategically to keep a bunch of munitions on shipment port. More so if stationed overseas, as the KittyHawk was.

        • They transferred the ammunition from the IKE to the other carriers so it can go into the shipyard for after cruise repairs and upkeep.

      • ISRAEL are the ones the icj found carrying out GENOCIDE. You yanks don’t have 2 braincells to rub together. Yes I have 1st hand experience of dealing with how stupid the average yank is. I worked for usafe for 8 years

        • Genocide is genocide wether carried out against or on the behalf of Israel. Indeed Israel needs to stop behaving according to the playbook of those who murdered 6 million of them.
          Just responding with more deadly criminal brutality to each deadly criminal brutality, one side to the other endlessy just perpetuates hate & violence.
          Netanyahu is dragging Israel down to the level of the fanatics who plague them. Butchering innocent civilians who Hamas/Hezbollah have made into human shields is no way for a civilised country to act.

    • The Truman is very close to deploying, Ike just got off of an extended deployment and is transferring her ammo to Truman. I’m not sure what Ford is doing, but it makes for an impressive photo:)

  6. Oh Andy please. As a former pongo I will say the Matelocks are not gutless. And there only useless as we havnt got enough ships. The rest yer i ll go with that.

  9. Theoretically you could take a Chinook Helicopter or an Osprey and turn them into “ship refueler” by just putting a fuel tank in the troop compartment.Land on a “Flat Top” and drop 10000 gallons of fuel right into the carriers fuel tanks.

    • Think you have over estimated the capacity of a chinook… perhaps a quarter of the fuel quantity would be more realistic… plus not very useable, the carrier would have to be very close to an airfield to be fuelled.

        • Why aren’t big boats propelled using nuclear- is it the waste it creates and if so: do subs dump nuclear waste in the ocean or has my naivety become a problem- do we not really have nuclear subs- and do they come back to shore to dump?
          I used to theorise of how much damage we actually do in the oceans and whether we dump nuclear waste there but surely our media would have been all over it if true.

    • Why not?

      It’s not like there is any sensitive tactical information in there and you can’t hide the strategic part, nor do you likely want to.

    • I think media is horrible in many ways but it exists because of assumed political prowess and necessary subterfuge diverting attention to other quarters.

      It’s a tool which is somewhat misused in my opinion and I agree with you – but do we realise the truth- not likely.

    • Hmmm…3M lbs. ÷ 1764 flts. = ~1700 lbs./flt
      Certainly w/in the realm of possibility. Presume the pace of current events dictated the requirement to transfer munitions enroute as opposed to a transfer at homeport. Actually, did not realize until this article that multiple carrier groups probably share the same munitions, in turn. Presume RN has a similar practice? Does this obliquely ndicate that there may be inadequate levels of war reserve munitions available? Dunno, hopefully not…🤔😳

      • The RN does not do VERTREP Helo ammo resupply if it can at all help it. It is literally a massive accident waiting to happen.
        Normally any transfer is via the stores ship using RAS (S) on a Jackstay.

        Transfer of ammo from ship to shore is doable and a well practised evolution in support of RM etc.

        Regarding Warstock ammo.
        In the RN a big chunk of the Warstock ammo is usually afloat on either RN ships or in RFA supply ships.

      • It seems logical to me to empty out a carrier that is going in for a refit.

        But, there being shortages , mainly due to attrition from the long and partly pointless wars in the Middle East, but also due to the absolutely necessary aid to Ukraine seems evident.
        If the latter affects carriers I am not sure, the first reason definately does. For instance, the F-18E went from one of the safest fighters to a rather iffy record mainly due to lack of maintenance and replacement of parts.

  14. Americans would not have spine to bring this many aircraft carriers to North Korea’s doorsteps anymore. So now they have to do a little demonstration out in the middle of nowhere.

    Most Americans also have no clue that these operations costs billions per day and is not listed in their defence budget.

    Soon they’ll be wondering about how to pay the interest on their massive mountain of debt.

  15. 3 carriers in the Atlantic, none operational in the Pacific , all down for maintenance, great planning , very vulnerable, at this moment ! I’m sure the Chinese, Russians and North Korea ,see this !

  16. Train & train then train again. That’s why U.S. Navy can get anywhere on earth less than 24 hours. Be ready to Strike or Deescalate.

  18. God, those three carriers together carry more airpower than most European nations have. A very impressive show of force. Then combined with the carriers escorts which would normally be 2 CCGs, 3-4 DDGs and 2 SSNs per carrier plus support ships the combined strength of these three carriers is equal if not more than any European nation. To think that the US could put ten of these Strike Groups to sea if the carriers were all operational at the same time really should give any nation a think twice before you take on the USN.

    Whilst looking at the photo it got me thinking about European defence and the issue it has. The Atlantic should be a European back yard, not a US playing field. An example is defence budgets, the US is expected this year to spend about 2.9% on defence, Europe about 2%. Yet the European nations are not getting the same return as the US in equipment numbers for investment. I then had to ask why, and its simple really duplication and national numbers. A really simple way is looking at MBTs the US has the Abrams a single design bought in numbers. Europe has to do the same job 4-5 MBT designs, each nation paying for the R&D bought in limited numbers making them in operational terms more expensive. Each MBT design would need its spares, techies, support etc again driving up cost. Ships and subs are even more diverse in Europe, just about every nation has their own designs, R&D etc. I am coming to the point where I think that for Europe it might be better to have a co-ordinated requirment, R&D and purchasing to stop duplication of requirements thereby reducing costs, then you can get more bang for your money.

    • Good Morning Ron. Your suggestion makes perfect sense but it is unlikely to happen. Notwithstanding the standardisation that has occured in the EU over the years,National self interest persists, especially in countries such as France! In addition, there is very little support for properly combining the Bloc’s armed forces and realistically this could only happen if the EU were to integrate much further to form a proper nation state

    • It’s not an inherently bad suggestion, but European integration isn’t going to happen for a very long time, at least not until the rest of Europe agrees to buy literally everything off the French.

      As much as I love France, they’re an absolute pain in the arse to work with in my field. I can only imagine (and read) how much of a nightmare they’d be in defence procurement.

  19. That was my home from 1999 to 2004
    CVN-75 U.S.S. HARRY S. TRUMAN is one of the Finest and Best carrier in our Navy. Every ship has its own Stigma and story.. I was on the ship for it’s 1st cruise and it’s 2nd cruise which was Operation Iraqi Freedom.. So recognize she’s going strong and ready for her next deployment.. She has won the Battle E. On several occasions and won on Food..

  24. How is this “news”? Every US carrier offloads/transfers its ordinance prior to a yard period and they do it at sea for safety rather than pierside in CONUS.

    This is a relatively routine evolution for a carrier going offline.

    But, given the recent debacles the USN has experienced in doing anticipated and required complex overhauls and midlife (25 year) nuclear refueling I guess anytime the USN succesfuly does anything out of the ordinary is cause for celebration.

    My carrier did this transfer in one day back in the mid 1980s – not eight days.

    BTW, why do so many articles use 3,000,000 pounds rather than the much more relatable 15,000 tons in describing such evolutions?

  25. Really curious. All three carriers were in port at Norfolk just prior to the date of this photo – 24 August. It appears that all three carriers departed Norfolk a few days prior to this photo specifically to conduct this replenishment at sea.

    • USN voluntarily chose to conduct this exercise? Very interesting, uncertain re implications, but an impressive proposition. 🤔

  27. I am so grateful for all your hard work and diligence on this operation. Thank you all for continuing to keep us all safe! Thank you for your service and God bless you All

  29. The ammunition transfer between those ships is nothing short of amazing. The teamwork of the pilots and crew members is essential to the success and safety of all involved!

  30. They are getting ready for the forthcoming worldwide event😅
    A lovely show of force for the deep state criminals they will be rounding up for sure 💪

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