The United States Navy conducted FleetEx '83 of April 1983, was then the largest fleet exercise held to date in the North Pacific. Activity was also in Japan, Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands. It had circa forty ships with 23,000 crewmembers and 300 aircraft, and was thus was arguably the most powerful naval armada ever assembled in both war or peace. It involved both the USS Bristol County (LST-1198) along with US carriers Midway and Coral Sea with their respective escorts.