The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan arrived at the port of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Thursday morning where it will be forward-deployed for seven years.
Arriving a day earlier than scheduled, the Ronald Reagan replaces the George Washington, another carrier of the Nimitz class that departed in May after a seven-year deployment at Yokosuka.
Commissioned in 2003, the Ronald Reagan took part in the U.S. military's Operation Tomodachi relief mission in the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region.