Kinkaid made its seventh deployment and supported the battle group by performing the anti-submarine warfare mission.

Nimitz, from 20 July through 24 July, then conducted a warfighting demonstration called Surge Exercise (SURGEX), during which it demonstrated the firepower of the carrier/airwing team and its ability to sustain continuous operations in support of forces ashore in the initial four days of a conflict when a deployed carrier might be the only asset available to provide such support.

During the deployment Kinkaid served as Tomahawk ready strike platform, helped enforce the no-fly zone in Southern Iraq and conducted maritime interception operations.

During the period, Kinkaid rescued the merchant vessel Sima Star, a container ship, from sinking 70 miles (110 km) off the coast of Bahrain after taking on over 40 tons of water.

Kinkaid sailors dewatered the fully loaded container ship, which was listing 15 degrees to the port side.

After seven hours of battling poor ventilation and flooding below decks, Kinkaid's rescue and assistance team was able to return the Sima Star to a five-degree list, allowing its crew to sail into Bahrain the following Monday morning for repairs.

During its 10-week patrol in the Persian Gulf region, the Constellation carrier battle group flew more than 5,000 casualty-free sorties, including nearly 1,300 in support of Operation Southern Watch.

The entire battle group had trained the previous six months in preparation for this deployment through a series of increasingly challenging exercises and operations.

Over the following six months, battle group ships conducted multi-national and joint operations with the navies of various allied countries and visit ports in Western Pacific and Persian Gulf nations.

The United States Navy Surface Force was scheduled to begin, in the summer of 2002, an initiative to test the effectiveness of deploying a single ship for 18-months while swapping out crews at six-month intervals.

After completing their training cycle and decommissioning Kinkaid, these sailors would fly to a port in either Australia or Singapore to assume ownership of Fletcher and steam her back on-station.