Carrier Strike Group 3 is a U.S. Navy carrier strike group. Carrier strike groups gain and maintain sea control as well as project naval airpower ashore. The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is the group's current flagship. Other units assigned include Carrier Air Wing Nine; the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Mobile Bay (CG-53); and the ships of Destroyer Squadron 21.

The United States Third Fleet is one of the numbered fleets in the United States Navy. Third Fleet's area of responsibility includes approximately fifty million square miles of the eastern and northern Pacific Ocean areas including the Bering Sea, Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, and a sector of the Arctic. Major oil and trade sea lines of communication within this area are critically important to the economic health of the United States and friendly nations throughout the Pacific Rim region.