US deploys aircraft carrier off coast where Russian ship was spotted 27 miles from shore

SPY SHIP: The Viktor Leonov, a Russian Navy intelligence warship (Getty)

 

A US aircraft carrier has been dispatched from a naval base in Virginia days after a Russian spy ship was spotted just 27 miles off the coast.

The USS George HW Bush, a Nimitz-class supercarrier, was deployed from Naval Station Norfolk, in southeastern Virginia, on Tuesday morning, according to maritime traffic monitors.

Naval trackers show the 1,092ft aircraft carrier is sailing through the Atlantic Ocean but details of its mission were not immediately available.