USS Gerald R. Ford is joining the deployment of US Southern Command, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on Friday.
The 1,090-ft vessel — which can carry more than 75 warplanes — moves as part of a carrier strike group that includes a cruiser, three destroyers and nine aircraft squadrons.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, seen in the North Sea during NATO Neptune Strike 2025 exercise on September 24, 2025 in the North Sea
It will ‘will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle’ the cartels, Parnell said in a statement.
The 100,000-ton warship joins the largest American force deployed to the Caribbean since the Cold War, including nuclear submarines, F-35 fighter jets, MQ-9 Reaper drones, P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance planes, and B-52 bombers.
The extraordinary deployment comes after Trump’s declaration that America is now in a ‘state of armed conflict’ with cartel forces, giving his commanders sweeping latitude to hunt traffickers beyond US waters.