As the Theater Strike Warfare Commander, CSG-5 is responsible for coordinating fires against land targets throughout the Seventh Fleet Operating Area.

As CTF-71, DESRON 15 oversees all independently deploying U.S cruisers, destroyers, frigates, and Coast Guard Cutters operating in the 7th Fleet area of responsibility.

Beginning in 1964 Carrier Group Five was permanently deployed to the Western Pacific and dual-hatted CTF 70/77, homeported at Naval Air Station Cubi Point in the Philippines.

[6] In December 1971, Commander Carrier Division 5, Rear Admiral Damon W. Cooper, led Task Force 74 aboard Enterprise to the Indian Ocean following the outbreak of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

[8] Carrier Group Five shifted its forward deployed location from Cubi Point, Republic of Philippines to Yokosuka, Japan in July 1989.

After the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, DC, on 11 September 2001, the Kitty Hawk Battle Group was ordered to deploy to the Indian Ocean and was later involved in combat missions against the Taliban and Al Qaida in Afghanistan.

The ships got underway again in January 2003 with orders to deploy to the Persian Gulf as part of the build-up of military forces in the area in preparation for the war against the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

[3] On 11 November 2013 George Washington Carrier Strike Group (GWCSG) was ordered to the Republic of the Philippines in response to Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda.

For Operation Damayan, the strike group included USS George Washington (CVN-73), six surface combatants, 23 helicopters from three squadrons, three Military Sealift Command ships and two amphibious ships all crewed by 8,000 sailors, The strike group concentrated its relief efforts on the islands of Leyte and Samar and the cities of Tacloban and Guiuan, delivering nearly 1,000,000 pounds of food, water and medical supplies and transporting more than 2,500 displaced personnel.

On 14 January 2014, the U.S. Navy announced that USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) will replace George Washington as the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 5.

On 17 June, the USS Fitzgerald was involved in a collision with the Philippine-flagged cargo vessel MV ACX Crystal in the Sea of Japan.