Distinguished Guests Gather aboard CVN 73

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) welcomed distinguished visitors from Japan, Australia and New Zealand to learn about and experience aircraft carrier operations during Talisman Sabre 2015 (TS15), July 11.

The tour familiarized George Washington’s Australian and New Zealand partners in flight operations, aircraft launch and recovery, aircraft maintenance and ship navigation. Along with being briefed on daily ship operations, the visitors were able to get insight on TS15 exercises.

Distinguished visitors included Sumio Kusaka, Japanese ambassador to Australia, Tony Lynch, New Zealand’s deputy secretary of defense, and Stuart Robert, Australia’s assistant minister of defence and Mark Binskin, chief of Australia’s defence force.

Distinguished visitors toured the ship’s hangar bay, flight deck, navigation bridge, air operations center and combat direction center.

TS15 is a biennial land, sea and air military training exercise between U.S. and Australian forces that features more than 33,000 personnel, 21 ships, 200 aircraft and three submarines, which increases U.S.-Australian interoperability to respond to a wide variety of contingencies and maintain security, peace, and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

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Image: US Navy