USS George Washington carrier set to dock in Da Nang, marking latest US-Vietnam naval outreach
The nuclear-powered USS George Washington will arrive in Da Nang, Vietnam, on Thursday after recent South China Sea operations, staying through Monday.
After beginning its deployment in May and conducting operations in the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea, the nuclear-powered USS George Washington (CVN-73) is slated to reach Da Nang, Vietnam, on Thursday and remain until Monday. This will be only the fourth US Navy carrier to call at a Vietnamese port in more than five decades and the first since the USS Ronald Reagan visited in June 2023, accompanied by the cruisers USS Antietam and USS Robert Smalls.
Previous carrier visits include the USS Theodore Roosevelt in 2020 and the USS Carl Vinson in 2018, the latter the first since 1975. Da Nang, now Vietnam’s third-largest port, is undergoing a $1.7 billion expansion featuring automated cargo handling and enhanced rail and road links, though Hanoi stresses the improvements are aimed at commercial resilience rather than creating an anti-China outpost. Analysts view the carrier’s presence as a sign of deepening US-Vietnam defence ties and a shared response to China’s expansive maritime claims in the region.
Why it matters
The port call signals stronger US-Vietnam security cooperation as both nations respond to China's growing maritime assertiveness.
In this story