Home heating oil price declines from October high but still up 59% YoY
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French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has blamed the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for the cyberattack on France’s supermarket fridges, an incident that occurred in October. The attack affected fridges in hundreds of stores nationwide.
Published On 10 Nov 202610 Nov 2026
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Weeks after Sean “Diddy” Combs was hospitalized for a head injury suffered while serving time in federal prison, his release date has moved up.
The disgraced music and alcohol mogul is now set to be released on Feb. 6, 2028, nearly a month sooner than his projected release date last month, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate database. Combs was sentenced in October 2025 to more than four years in prison following his July conviction for transporting prostitutes across state lines for drug-fueled sex parties known as “freak-offs.”
The release date for Combs has changed multiple times since his conviction, and although he was initially projected to be freed in June 2028, the embattled producer’s release date has been moved forward and back, as dates frequently change due to a variety of factors.
Combs, 56, was reportedly placed in solitary confinement in late September following an NBC News report that he allegedly obtained a contraband cellphone, had access to a tablet that had been “jailbroken” to remove various restrictions and was stashing booze, often called pruno or toilet wine. The report also detailed ways in which Combs was allegedly living it up on the inside and receiving massages and special meals.
In October, after his head injury, the circumstances of which are unclear, he was transferred out of Fort Dix, a low-security federal prison in New Jersey, to another low-security prison, FCI Allenwood in Pennsylvania, where he is now an inmate in the general population.
“The continued scrutiny of every mundane detail of Sean Combs’s life in prison has reached the point where the media characterizes ordinary prison life as news,” a spokesperson for Combs said in a statement to NBC News. “The only real news is that Sean continues to serve his sentence while awaiting the court’s decision on his appeal.”
Times staff writers Alexandra Del Rosario and Andrea Flores contributed to this report.
Nicolas Cage says he’s “a little bit homeless” because of the massive sinkhole that swallowed up the driveway of his Malibu home
While sharing his Halloween plans during an appearance on the main stage Saturday at Los Angeles Comic Con, the “Spider-Noir” star lamented that greeting any trick-or-treaters at home wasn’t a part of his itinerary.
“I’m currently a little bit homeless,” Cage said in a fan video from the event. “Something happened to my house in Malibu, so I’m just sort of living in hotels. So I don’t have the normal trick-or-treaters that I would like to enjoy tonight.”
Instead he said his plans for his favorite holiday included taking his daughter trick-or-treating “somewhere in Santa Monica” and then watching Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror classic, “The Shining.”
“That is one of my favorite movies ever made,” he said.
A massive, expanding sinkhole opened up just outside Cage’s home on Sea Level Drive on Sept. 8, prompting Malibu to declare a local emergency and issue evacuation orders for 31 homes in the beachside community. Seven of those homes were red-tagged because of hazardous conditions.
The 25-foot-deep and 30-by-60-feet wide crater blocks the only road in and out of the neighborhood. The homeowner’s association that controls the private roadway is responsible for overseeing the repair efforts. The work includes excavation to retrieve a soil sample and debris removal, as well as installing sandbags to mitigate further damage from strong waves and coastal erosion.
In October, Cage secured four permits to repair the damage caused by the sinkhole.
L.A. Comic Con marks the “National Treasure” actor’s latest outing to directly interact with his fans. He also appeared at Fan Expo Dallas and New York Comic Con earlier this fall, where he addressed topics including his thoughts on the Marvel Cinematic Universe and AI.
Robert Way/iStock Editorial via Getty Images
Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD (BYDDF)(BYDDY) reported an 11% increase in October vehicle sales, extending its growth streak to six consecutive months as surging overseas shipments helped offset sluggish domestic demand and fierce price competition.
BYD sold 490,168 vehicles during
The communication services (XLC) declined over 9% in October amid a turbulent sell off fueled by growing investor scrutiny over the massive AI-related investments and disappointing results from big names including Alphabet and Meta Platforms.
Communication Services Sector October Scorecard
Rare footage, recordings and documents obtained by Al Jazeera offer a look inside the life of former Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, including previously unseen meetings and reported decisions leading up to the Oct 7 attacks. Deif was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza on July 13, 2024.
Published On 31 Oct 202631 Oct 2026
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Dwyane Wade is looking much more like himself these days.
That is, the statue of Wade outside of Kaseya Center in Miami now looks much more like the retired Heat legend than it did when it was unveiled two years ago. The sculpture’s new look, featuring a redesigned head by original sculptors Omri Amrany and Oscar Léon, was unveiled Friday.
The statue was meant to capture the iconic moment in 2009 when Wade jumped on a scorers’ table and declared, “This is my house!” Much of the public reaction, however, centered around how the piece looked less like the three-time NBA champion and more like Laurence Fishburne, Kelsey Grammer, Ken Norton Jr. and others.
“I heard the jokes. I saw the memes. I read the reactions. Everybody had an opinion about whether it actually looked like me,” Wade wrote in an essay published Friday on Substack. “At first, it was hard not to feel protective of it because I had spent so much time involved in the process. … But eventually, I had to take a step back and understand that the statue doesn’t belong only to me. It also belongs to Miami.”
He added: “I had to ask myself a pretty simple question: If people don’t feel that connection when they look at the face, why wouldn’t we try to make it better? So we listened and had honest conversations with everyone involved, and we all agreed to make adjustments to the head.”
When the statue was originally unveiled in October 2024, Wade had nothing but great things to say about it. He said it was his idea to immortalize that pose and that he had a lot of input on how the final product would look.
The original face on Dwyane Wade’s statue at Kaseya Center didn’t quite seem to capture the Miami Heat legend’s likeness.
(Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)
“I was just like, ‘Dude, that’s beautiful,’” Wade told reporters after the original unveiling. “Personally biased, I think it’s one of the best statues that’s been created because of what it represents for us and for me.”
Amrany also defended the statue at the time.
“We emphasized a two-second moment of his life when he jumped on the table and was in screaming mode,” Amrany told The Times in October 2024. “And that’s what it is, that’s what happens to the face when people are doing this activity, this facial activity.
“We are very dedicated to a very high detailed quality to deliver exactly what the exact photo is giving us. For somebody to say that this does not look like Dwyane Wade in action, they don’t know Dwayne Wade in action. Or they don’t remember that. And it’s OK for them to say whatever they want.”
Both artists explained the decision to revisit the project in a statement released to media outlets this week.
“After seeing the work at full scale and in its permanent environment, we identified opportunities to strengthen the portrait,” Amrany and Léon said. “We decided that the importance of Dwyane warranted making those refinements rather than accepting something we believed could be improved.”
According to Wade, “this isn’t about erasing the work that was already done or disrespecting the artists who put their time and talent into creating it. It’s about being willing to listen. It’s about recognizing when something carries meaning for more people than just yourself and being open enough to revisit it.”
He added: “I hope when people see it now, they see a better likeness of me. But more than that, I hope they see themselves. Because it may be my likeness, but it will always be our house.”
Based on the comments on an X post by the Heat showing off the changes, Heat fans seem to approve. As one person wrote, it’s the “first statue to have a redemption arc.”
AlexSecret
The Chicago PMI dipped to 55.3, missing the 56.0 consensus, from 58.8 in September, according to data released by MNI and the Chicago Institute for Supply Management on Friday.
A reading over 50 indicates economic growth. So the lower number in October suggests that growth slowed from the September pace.
Developing… Check back for updates.
The FOMC will reduce interest rate-setting meetings starting in 2027 to allow more time for policy discussions.
The Federal Reserve steered clear of a political October surprise but delivered an unexpected shift in monetary policy strategy.
After announcing that the Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC, decided, as expected, to maintain the federal funds rate between 3.75% and 4%, Chairman Kevin Warsh announced that the body would introduce a monetary policy strategy meeting that would not vote on the federal funds rate or issue a policy statement, replacing one of its eight policy-setting meetings beginning in the autumn of 2027. It expects to replace a second policy-setting meeting with another strategy meeting in 2028.
The move aims to get monetary policy right, said Warsh. “It involves assessing near-term development at timely, regular, and information-rich intervals. But it is equally important that we reserve time and space as an intellectually diverse group for strategic deliberations, for thinking anew about big questions, looking over longer-term horizons, and focusing on the left side of the decimal point.”
The move would reduce the cadence of the FOMC’s policy meetings, “but does not rule out possible inter-meeting policy moves because of potential exigent circumstances,” said Kenneth Kim, a senior economist at KPMG. “Chair Warsh mentioned that this had occurred during the Global Financial Crisis.”
Warsh also announced that the five task forces he commissioned during the first month of his tenure on Fed communications, the Fed’s balance sheet, the use of existing data sources, inflation frameworks, and productivity will deliver their findings by year-end.
On November 16, the Productivity and Jobs task force plans to hold a field hearing to examine productivity’s implications for jobs in the near, medium, and long term.
“I, for one, am keenly interested in refining my own views on that question, but the task force decided that they wanted to hear from more people as part of their undertaking,” said Warsh.
Warsh also knocked down any suggestion that politics affected the FOMC’s decision to maintain the federal funds rate six days before the U.S. congressional mid-term elections.
“I just spent two days with my colleagues upstairs, and didn’t hear an utterance about politics,” he said. “I didn’t hear a reference to politics, elections, or what’s happening in the next week or so.”
When asked whether he or the Federal Reserve Board would be involved in the White House’s Nov. 5 closed-door hearing on allegations of mortgage fraud involving Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, Warsh replied, “Not to my knowledge.”
Although the FOMC unanimously supported September’s 0.25% hike in the federal funds rate, October’s decision to maintain the rate showed slight division. Fed Gov. Lisa Cook and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President and CEO Beth Hammock each voted for a 0.25% increase.
That division moves the FOMC closer to raising rates at its December meetings, said Kim. “If you look at market probabilities for December, they’re currently at an 84% chance of a rate hike. I think those dissents are in line with what the market is factoring in will happen at the next FOMC meeting.”
Rob Daly covers the economy and fintech. He can be reached at rdaly@gfmag.com
The Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) tied up in Yokosuka, Japan, on Monday, a week after the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group departed from the same base to participate in exercise Keen Sword 27. Both are reportedly destined for the Middle East, two U.S. officials confirmed to Fox News, which would place three CSGs and two ARGs in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR) sometime in November, unless a group leaves before their arrival. More than 10 guided-missile destroyers are also operating independently in the region, as the U.S. beefs up force posture ahead of the possibility of renewed hostilities against the Iranian regime.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the USS Ronald Reagan remotely controlled an MQ-25A Stingray tanker drone thousands of miles away for the first time, and the Navy announced that USS Abraham Lincoln, which just returned from a historic deployment, will conduct a homeport shift to Bremerton, Washington.
Here’s TWZ’s weekly carrier tracker monitoring America’s flattop fleet, including deployed CSGs and ARGs, using publicly available open-source information. Check out our last report here.
Surrounded by allied warships, the USS Theodore Roosevelt steamed through the Philippine Sea last week as large-scale combined exercise Keen Sword 27 got underway. Roosevelt and guided-missile cruiser USS Chosin departed Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka, on October 19 following a three-day port call. Roosevelt deployed on September 27 and was the first non-resident American carrier to pull into the vital naval port in over four years.
Three American warships are participating in the exercise, a Navy official confirmed to TWZ. The third participant, Pearl Harbor-based guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur, another element of the five-ship strike group, also called port in Yokosuka and transited out of Tokyo Bay on October 26.
Australian, Canadian, and French warships joined the exercise alongside the U.S. and Japan in a large show of force. Keen Sword 27 runs through October 29, but it’s unclear if Roosevelt and her escorts will remain until the conclusion before heading toward the Middle East via the Strait of Malacca. More than 45,000 Japan Self-Defense Forces personnel and 11,000 U.S. service members are participating.
F/A-18 Super Hornets and F-35Cs launched from Roosevelt and other airbases in Japan to complete a simulated strike against a target in the East Sea/Sea of Japan, which also included land-based launchers, an exercise spokesperson told Stars and Stripes. Japanese destroyers JS Kongo and JS Maya assumed the red team role. The precise location and munitions employed were not disclosed.
The Theodore Roosevelt CSG, which a different Navy official confirmed also includes USS Paul Hamilton and USS Carl M. Levin, will arrive in the Middle East, Fox News reported last week. Both destroyers are disaggregated from the rest of the group. Hamilton, the last ship to deploy, left San Diego on October 10 and most recently pulled out of Pearl Harbor last week. Levin, the first ship to deploy, is already operating in the CENTCOM AOR, based on public images posted on the military’s content platform, DVIDS.
If the CSG and ARG, which also includes amphibious transport docks USS Anchorage and USS John P. Murtha, arrive in the Middle East before the other two carriers on station, USS George H.W. Bush and USS George Washington, and big-deck amphibious assault ship, USS Boxer, depart, that would add roughly 10,000 sailors and Marines to CENTCOM’s arsenal, the most significant force posture in the region since the war began. However, the overlap can only be maintained for a limited time given normal rotation schedules.
Acting Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV), Hung Cao, said during a panel at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) convention that “the Teddy Roosevelt carrier strike group just deployed on October 8 with a medium sized unmanned surface vessel (MUSV). This is the first carrier strike group to ever deploy with a large size unmanned surface vessel.” However, despite multiple requests to comment, the Navy has not confirmed to TWZ that MUSV Seahawk (2) is assigned to the strike group. Seahawk was 10 nautical miles north of Guam, publicly available Automatic Identification System (AIS) data on MarineTraffic showed, as of publication.
Providing a glimpse of the future, the USS Ronald Reagan used her brand-new Unmanned Air Warfare Center (UAWC) to operate a MQ-25A Stingray tanker drone at a Boeing facility in Illinois. “In a historic U.S. naval aviation event, an aircraft carrier connected to, and controlled, an unmanned aerial refueler MQ-25A Stingray more than 2,100 miles away,” the Navy said in a press release.
The UAWC, installed during Reagan’s recently completed 15-month maintenance available, used its MD-5C ground control station to link beyond line-of-sight with the drone while the flattop was underway in the eastern Pacific Ocean. “The MQ-25A Stingray’s carrier-based refueling capabilities enable F/A-18 Super Hornets to fly farther and longer,” the Acting SECNAV said. “The integration of this unmanned aerial refueler demonstrates the transformational change our manned and unmanned asset integration provides the Fleet.”
The test took place during a preliminary sea trial, part of a “series of build-up exercises designed to validate procedures, networks and interfaces,” reads the release. Capt. Daniel Fucito, program manager of the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Aviation Program Office’s (PMA-268), said, “We have redefined naval power projection. This first-ever underway connection between a carrier-based UAWC and an MQ-25A aircraft proves that the Carrier Air Wing of tomorrow is a reality today.”
Reagan is the second Nimitz class carrier equipped with the UAWC. The MQ-25A will eventually take the role held by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornets that are tasked with fueling carrier-based aircraft, freeing up aircraft to take on higher-end combat roles.
Reagan moored at Kilo Pier at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego on October 27 after finishing Fleet Replacement Squadron and Carrier Qualifications.
The USS Abraham Lincoln recently returned from a record-setting deployment. The carrier arrived back home on October 8 after being at sea for 321 days, less than a week short of the longest carrier deployment in the post-Vietnam era.
The Navy has confirmed what TWZ was the first to report: the Lincoln will complete a homeport shift to Bremerton, Washington, to undergo an overhaul following a grueling deployment that left the carrier looking worse for wear. The release did not disclose the length of the availability, but Reagan was out of commission for more than a year, and was not previously involved in combat operations.
“The carrier repeatedly demonstrated unmatched multi-theater combat lethality and safeguarded critical sea lanes across the Indo-Pacific and Middle Eastern theaters. Home port shifts are part of the Navy’s continued commitment to the strategic dispersal of ships,” a statement released from Commander, Naval Air Forces reads.
The move is a permanent change of station for the crew and their families.
Overall, three U.S. carriers are deployed, three are working up in various states of readiness, three are in maintenance availabilities, one is post-deployment, one is being used primarily for training before deactivation, and another will be delivered in 2027. Two amphibious ready groups are deployed, one is forward-deployed, three are working up or in port, and three are in maintenance.
Note: Positions are general approximations. Non-deployed LHA/LHD amphibious warships are not shown.
Contact the author: ian@twz.com or @ianellisjones
Actor Jason Segel and dancer-actor Kayla Radomski are officially husband and wife, tying the knot three years after striking up a romance.
The pair married over the weekend, Radomski confirmed in a series of photos and videos she reposted Monday to her Instagram stories. Segel and Radomski reportedly married Saturday at the Huntington in San Marino, according to People.
A representative for Segel did not immediately respond on Tuesday to a request for confirmation.
The photos Radomski shared to her Instagram page show herself donning a white, strapless gown adorned with a pink and green floral pattern. One photo that Radomski reshared to her Instagram stories shows Segel in a deep burgundy suit, walking hand-in-hand with Radomski.
“Shrinking” star Segel and “So You Think You Can Dance” alumna Radomski were first spotted together in October 2023 during a date night at Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights. They finally debuted their relationship at the 2024 Golden Globe Awards, when Segel was nominated for his work in the Apple TV series. The now-newlyweds continued to hit the red carpet at several other Hollywood events including the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards in September and high-profile parties.
“Nothing makes me happier than to stand by your side and see your light shine so bright!!!” Radomski said of Segel in an Instagram post in October amid the Season 2 premiere of “Shrinking.”
In June 2025, Radomski revealed that Segel popped the question and shared photos from their outdoor proposal. For Radomski, it was a “FOREVER YES.”
With a flight deck packed with carrier-based aircraft, including stealthy fifth-generation F-35Cs, the USS Theodore Roosevelt pulled into Yokosuka, Japan, on Friday. Roosevelt is the first non-resident U.S. carrier to visit the key naval port, strategically located on the east side of Japan, in more than four years. Yokosuka is home to the USS George Washington and America’s only forward-based Carrier Strike Group (CSG).
The Roosevelt, which serves as the flagship of CSG 9, escorted by guided-missile cruiser USS Chosin and destroyer USS Decatur, completed the journey from San Diego in 19 days − maneuvering around a typhoon in the Western Pacific − and will participate in the upcoming combined exercise Keen Sword 27. Meanwhile, the USS George H.W. Bush departed Thailand after a five-day port call and returned to the Middle East, and the USS Abraham Lincoln arrived home after a nearly eleven-month combat deployment.
Here’s TWZ’s weekly carrier tracker monitoring America’s flattop fleet, including deployed CSGs and Amphibious Ready Groups (ARGs), using publicly available open-source information. Check out last week’s report here.
Roosevelt and Chosin chopped into the U.S. 7th Fleet-Pacific Command (PACOM) area of responsibility (AOR) and arrived at Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka on the morning of October 16. The CSG will spend a few days in port before beginning participation in exercise Keen Sword, a “premier joint-bilateral field training exercise designed to increase readiness and interoperability between the Japan Self-Defense Forces and U.S. military forces,” according to the 7th Fleet press release. The brief visit allows the crew to complete maintenance, resupply, and disembark for liberty before resuming routine operations.
“Our crew is honored to visit Yokosuka and experience the rich culture and hospitality of Japan,” the commanding officer of Roosevelt, Capt. Will Mathis, said in the release. “Port visits like this are vital for crew morale and mission readiness, allowing our Sailors to rest, recharge, and prepare to operate seamlessly alongside our allies during exercise Keen Sword.”
The five-ship CSG, the composition of which a Navy official confirmed to TWZ, is currently operating on a disaggregated basis − a common practice employed by strike groups with multiple ongoing missions. The duo that departed the U.S. at the end of September linked up with another element of the group, Pearl Harbor-based guided missile destroyer USS Decatur, as they were steaming westbound past the Hawaiian Islands, based on public Automatic Identification System (AIS) data. Decatur arrived in Yokosuka the day after Roosevelt but was not mentioned in the press release.
USS Carl M. Levin, also stationed in Hawaii, was the first ship from the group to deploy, according to DVIDS, the military’s content-sharing platform. Levin departed on September 9 and is operating at an undisclosed location. USS Paul Hamilton, the final ship assigned to CSG 9 to deploy, left San Diego on October 10 after onloading ammo at Bravo Pier and moored at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on October 15, AIS data shows. Henry J. Kaiser class fleet replenishment oiler USNS Tippecanoe supported the group’s transit across the Pacific, conducting multiple replenishments-at-sea (RAS), and recently entered the East Sea/Sea of Japan via the Tsugaru Strait before going dark on AIS.
Multiple reports indicated that medium unmanned surface vessel (MUSV) Seahawk (2) deployed with the group, which would represent a significant operational achievement and the first time a drone boat was assigned to a CSG, but the MUSV quietly slipped out of Point Loma on October 8, more than ten days after Roosevelt. Seahawk reappeared on AIS and docked in Hawaii for a couple days before continuing its journey westbound in the Pacific on October 16. If Seahawk is assigned to CSG 9, it is currently disaggregated, and whether it will join Roosevelt to participate in exercise Keen Sword 27 is unknown.
Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao seemingly confirmed the deployment, saying during a panel at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) convention that “the Teddy Roosevelt carrier strike group just deployed on October 8 with a medium sized unmanned surface vessel. This is the first carrier strike group to ever deploy with a large size unmanned surface vessel.” However, Roosevelt was more than halfway to Japan on the date referenced. “This is a force multiplier, imagine having more guns out there,” he added.
TWZ reached out to the Secretary’s office for clarification and to confirm the deployment but did not receive a response. “Seahawk’s operations represent continued progress in the Navy’s efforts to integrate unmanned systems into Fleet operations. As with any emerging capability, we continue to learn, adapt, and refine how these systems are employed,” a Navy official told us.
Surrounded by small boats, with hundreds of spectators lining the channel in San Diego Bay and thousands more watching online, the USS Abraham Lincoln arrived home from a historic ten-and-a-half-month combat deployment. The flagship of CSG 3 and her crew of more than 5,000 Sailors and Marines served as the tip of the spear in the war against the Iranian regime, first during Operation Epic Fury and then the subsequent blockades, and set a new record for the most consecutive days at sea without a port call.
Lincoln pulled into Naval Air Station North Island and moored at Berth Lima on October 8, 321 days after casting off on November 21, 2025. Sailors in dress whites manned the rails as the carrier transited the bay, escorted on both sides by small boats and jet skis flying American flags, while family and friends eagerly waited pierside for their return. The video below, shared by the Pentagon, captures the moment.
Lincoln now lays claim to the second-longest deployment in the modern carrier era, falling just five days short of the 326-day post-Vietnam record held by the USS Gerald R. Ford. The flattop traveled over 93,000 nautical miles during the cruise − more than four trips around the Earth, a post by the public affairs officer highlighted − and conducted 72 replenishments-at-sea, received 20-plus million gallons of aviation fuel, and flew more than 14,000 sorties that totaled 28,500 flight hours, a press release from the Navy highlighted.
The release confirmed for the first time that Lincoln broke the previous record of 206 days set by USS Dwight D. Eisenhower during the COVID pandemic for days spent underway between port visits, as TWZ first reported. “The ship’s 208 uninterrupted days at sea between Guam and Oman, and its 286 consecutive days at sea between departing San Diego and arriving in Thailand, are record-breaking marks for modern aircraft carriers.”
Lincoln’s cruise took her through both U.S. 7th Fleet and U.S. 5th Fleet AORs. During Operation Epic Fury, which began on February 28 and lasted almost 40 days, Lincoln took up station in the northern Arabian Sea as Commander, Task Force (CTF) 50 and pressured Iran’s southern flank. When major combat operations wound down, the carrier and her air wing patrolled and enforced the blockade line during both rounds that followed.
Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 9, the “Navy’s premier next-generation air wing that served as the primary offensive power” for CSG 3, flew 14,037 sorties − including 4,000 combat missions − and dropped more than 1.37 million pounds of ordnance on thousands of targets while employing 1,499 precision weapons. “This concentrated firepower significantly degraded Iranian Navy capabilities,” a separate statement noted.
“The rapid mobilization and combat execution of CVW-9 during Operation Epic Fury demonstrated the unmatched flexibility of a U.S. Navy carrier strike group,” Capt. J.W. Stigi, commander of CVW-9, said in the statement. “Pairing fifth-generation F-35C stealth and sensor fusion with fourth-generation workhorse strike and electronic attack platforms, Team Shogun destroyed Iran’s conventional Navy and secured vital maritime chokepoints in support of our commander’s objectives.”
Kill marks painted on the island superstructure show CSG 3 destroyed 106 one-way attack drones fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), 34 Iranian Navy and IRGC ships, 23 inbound cruise missiles, and 10 enemy submarines. The strike group dropped 1,463 air-to-ground munitions in total, a Sailor explaining the marks said in a video on social media.
The USS George H.W. Bush and her destroyer escort, USS Delbert D. Black, departed Phuket, Thailand, on October 9 after a five-day liberty visit. “Nearly 5,000 Sailors from across the strike group experienced the sights and sounds Thailand has to offer, deepening their understanding of the Thai people and strengthening interpersonal bonds,” according to a press release.
“The Sailors and I had an amazing time in this beautiful country, and I sincerely thank the people of Thailand for their incredible welcome,” Capt. Justin T. Issler, the commanding officer of George H.W. Bush, said about the stop. “This port visit to Phuket was a tremendous opportunity for the crew. We are grateful to our Thai allies for hosting us, and we look forward to continuing our mission here in 7th Fleet, alongside Thailand and our other regional allies and partners.”
Bush dropped anchor approximately two nautical miles south of Ao Makham Deep Sea Port on October 4 after 187 consecutive days at sea. After leaving Phuket, the carrier stopped broadcasting AIS while steaming due south at 10 knots. Imagery on DVIDS confirms that the CSG returned to the Middle East and operating in the U.S. 5th Fleet AOR to “support maritime security and stability,” joining the George Washington CSG once again as the second strike group in the region.
Destroyer USS Mason, which deployed as the integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) commander for the CSG but has disaggregated at times, arrived in Singapore on October 5, likely for a port call. The Arleigh Burke class destroyer departed on October 9 and was last tracked heading northwestbound in the Malacca Strait, likely to rejoin the CSG. The other two destroyers assigned to the CSG, USS Ross and USS Donald Cook, remained in 5th Fleet during the visit.
Marking a major milestone, an F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter made the first arrested landing aboard a Gerald R. Ford class carrier, the Navy’s newest and most advanced class of aircraft carriers that are being built to replace the aging Nimitz fleet. The trap was made by Lt. Cmdr. Robert Mason with the “Salty Dogs” of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 aboard the future USS John F. Kennedy in the Western Atlantic on October 13. The first catapult launch followed the next day, pictures on DVIDS showed.
VX-23, based out of Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, is part of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division and was putting Kennedy through the ongoing Aircraft Compatibility Testing to assess the “operational capabilities of the ship’s aircraft launch and recovery equipment.” A team from the Patuxent River-based F-35 Integrated Test Force, detached to the ship, conducted the evaluation using a specially instrumented example of the jet. One of the two pictured was externally equipped with an inert Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bomb.
The Navy took preliminary acceptance of Kennedy, which is still considered a Pre-Commissioning Unit, on September 29. This process allows the service to conduct at-sea testing and build underway proficiency while the shipbuilder, Huntington Ingalls Industries, completes final system checks ahead of expected delivery in spring 2027. Kennedy got underway on October 13 and returned to her homeport of Naval Station Norfolk three days later.
The lead ship of the class, the USS Gerald R. Ford, does not currently embark F-35Cs and will need upgrades to field the Navy’s most advanced jet. Back in 2019, TWZ warned that the stealth jet wouldn’t fly from the troubled class for years. Because of this, Congress required that Kennedy be equipped to embark F-35Cs, which led to additional delays for the Navy’s next carrier.
Overall, three U.S. carriers are deployed, three are working up in various states of readiness, three are in maintenance availabilities, one is post-deployment, one is being used primarily for training before deactivation next year, and another will be delivered in 2027. Two amphibious ready groups are deployed, one is forward-deployed, three are working up or in port, and three are in maintenance.
Note: Positions are general approximations. Non-deployed LHA/LHD amphibious warships are not shown.
Contact the author: ian@twz.com or @ianellisjones