WASHINGTON: The US Navy will redeploy the world’s largest warship which was ordered to the eastern Mediterranean Sea immediately after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, to its home port as scheduled to prepare for future deployments, an official statement said.
In its statement on Monday, the US Sixth Fleet did not give an exact date for the USS Gerald R. Ford's redeployment, but only said that the warship will head back "in the coming days" to its homeport of Norfolk, Virginia, after its first combat deployment -- an eight-month cruise that began on May 2,
The USS Gerald R. Ford was commissioned in 2017 and is the US Navy’s newest aircraft carrier and the lead ship in the Navy’s first new carrier class designed in over 40 years.
The 100, 000-tonne warship, with a contingent of F/A-18 Super Hornet jet fighters aboard, arrived off the coast of Israel in the days following Hamas’ terror attacks that killed more than 1, 200 people.
That movement was ordered so the Ford could contribute to US “regional deterrence and defense posture”, the Sixth Fleet said in its statement.
The statement went on to say that the Department of Defense (DoD) continues to evaluate its "force posture globally and will retain extensive capability both in the Mediterranean and across the Middle East".
It added that the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, which can carry Marine Corps F-35 stealth fighters, as well as the dock landing ship USS Carter Hall and amphibious transport dock USS Mesa Verde were operating together in the eastern Mediterranean.
US guided-missile destroyers, including some of which have brought down Houthi drones and missiles in recent weeks, are also in the region, the Sixth Fleet noted.
"We are collaborating with allies and partners to bolster maritime security in the region. DoD will continue to leverage its collective force posture in the region to deter any state or non-state actor from escalating this crisis beyond Gaza, " the statement added.