Re: Where's the fleet?
It wouldn't be spontaneous. Re the carrier task forces, Bill Clinton wrote that whenever there was trouble in the world the first question was "Where are the carriers?"
It's quite unusual to not have a significant number "out there". We didn't build them to have them sitting around in their home ports.
And it makes sense they are refitting after heavy duty during the wars, even though some were overhauled while the war was in high gear.
I think it's a puzzlement, and I'm glad TB pointed it out. Could be innocent.