The Pentagon is sending the Navy’s largest and most advanced aircraft carrier to the Middle East, as the U.S. steps up plans for a potential attack on Iran, two U.S. officials said.
The USS Gerald R. Ford seen in September in the North Sea.
The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group is deploying to the region after spending several months in the Caribbean and Mediterranean. It will be joining the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and nine other warships already operating in the Middle East.
The move comes as President Trump ramps up pressure on Iran to make concessions over its nuclear program. Officials from the U.S. and Iran held a first round of talks last week, and Trump has indicated that he is open to making a deal with Tehran to head off military action.
“They want to make a deal, as they should want to make a deal,” Trump told reporters last week. “They know the consequences if they don’t. If they don’t make a deal, the consequences are very steep. So we’ll see what happens.”
The Ford’s deployment, reported earlier by the New York Times, marks another major mission for the carrier and its crew, which have been away from home for more than 200 days. The ship was rerouted from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean in October to support oil tanker seizures and the U.S. operation to capture former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
The carrier’s new orders also mark a renewed U.S. focus on the Middle East after the Trump administration’s pivot to the Western Hemisphere. When the Ford was sent to the Caribbean in the fall, it marked the first time in decades that there was no carrier in either U.S. Central Command, home of U.S. forces in the Middle East, or U.S. European Command.
Navy officials have expressed concern about the strain that another deployment extension could put on sailors, but the carrier has a strong track record and can support additional combat operations if needed, they say.
The Ford will bring dozens more jet fighters and surveillance aircraft to the region and enable commanders to carry out airstrikes at a higher rate.
