On 8 January 2007, "Newport News" was operating submerged in the Arabian Sea south of the Straits of Hormuz when it hit the Japanese tanker "Mogamigawa". She had been operating as part of Carrier Strike Group 8 (CSG-8), organized around the aircraft carrier . The Carrier Strike Group was redeploying to the Indian Ocean to support a maritime cordon during the war in Somalia when the incident happened. "Newport News" suffered damage to her bow, but there was no damage to the sail, mast or reactor, and she made for port in Bahrain under her own power.