America’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, arrived in the Caribbean on Tuesday, joining eight other warships and a nuclear submarine in the region.
The Pentagon said the carrier would bolster its effort to “disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations.”
President Donald Trump ordered the Gerald R. Ford to the Caribbean three weeks ago, prompting Venezuela’s socialist dictator, Nicolas Maduro, to claim the United States was preparing for a regime change invasion of his country.
The Maduro regime announced on Tuesday it was launching a “massive deployment” of air, land, and sea forces, putting “the entire country’s military arsenal on full operational readiness” in response to the “imperialist threat” from U.S. forces.
The Gerald Ford was previously stationed near Croatia, so it had to cross the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to reach the Caribbean. The carrier’s battle group includes two guided missile destroyers, USS Bainbridge and USS Mahan, plus the missile defense command ship USS Winston S. Churchill.
“With more than 4,000 Sailors and dozens of tactical aircraft aboard, Gerald R. Ford provides combatant commanders and America’s civilian leaders increased capacity to project power through sustained operations at sea. The first-in-class carrier can simultaneously catapult launch and recover fixed-wing aircraft on its flight deck, day or night, in support of tasked operations,” U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said on Tuesday as the carrier entered its area of responsibility.
SOUTHCOM Commander Adm. Alvin Holsey said the carrier strike group’s redeployment “represents a critical step in reinforcing our resolve to protect the security of the Western Hemisphere and the safety of the American homeland.”
Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) is the leading ship in a new class of nuclear-powered “supercarriers.” Construction began in 2005, and the ship was commissioned in July 2017. The carrier’s first major deployment began in May 2023.
Gerald R. Ford can carry over 75 fixed and rotary-wing military aircraft, greatly augmenting the strike power of the F-35 fighters and bombers already operating around Venezuela. The crew of the supercarrier numbers about 4,000.
The Caribbean buildup has become the largest U.S. military presence in the region since the invasion of Panama in 1989. Analyst Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) told the Washington Post on Tuesday that the arrival of Gerald R. Ford started a “shot clock” on Trump’s next play in Latin America.
“This is not an asset they can just keep there indefinitely. They have to use it or move it. And moving it would mean they are standing down,” Cancian noted.
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