The USS Gerald R. Ford, the US Navy’s most cutting-edge aircraft carrier and the world’s largest warship, transited the Strait of Gibraltar on February 20 and entered the Mediterranean Sea amid escalating tensions with Iran.
The US currently has 13 warships in the Middle East: one aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, nine destroyers, and three littoral combat ships, a US official said.
The Ford — the world’s largest carrier — was seen transiting the Strait of Gibraltar toward the Mediterranean in a photo taken on Friday. It is accompanied by three destroyers and, upon arrival, will bring the total number of US warships in the Middle East to 17.
Thousands of sailors crew both carriers, which have air wings comprising dozens of warplanes. It is rare to have two of the massive warships in the Middle East at the same time.
On February 13, when President Donald Trump was asked about the rationale for deploying a second Carrier Strike Group to the Middle East, he said the US would need the carrier there.
“We’ll need it if we don’t make a deal (with Iran),” the US president told reporters.
How Ready is USS Gerald R. Ford? The deployment of USS Gerald R. Ford to the Middle East theatre marks the second major redirection during what can be called an extraordinarily extended deployment.
The USS Ford departed its homeport in Norfolk, Virginia, on June 24, 2025, initially for routine operations in the Mediterranean and European waters as part of Carrier Strike Group 12.
After months of NATO drills, port visits, and patrols, including participation in Neptune Strike, the CSG was redirected across the Atlantic to the Caribbean to further pressure Venezuela.
The USS Ford’s initial deployment was expected to end in the last week of December 2025; however, its redeployment to the Caribbean pushed that timeline. The crew on the world’s biggest warship was then expecting to come home by early March; however, that will get delayed, too.
Although the US Navy regularly kept carriers deployed for 9 months or longer during the post-9/11 wars, peacetime deployments typically last no more than 6 months.
The USS Ford was due for a major maintenance and refitting period at the Newport News Naval Shipyard in Virginia early this year. This deployment to the Middle East means not only will USS Ford have to spend more time in maintenance, but the cost of repairs and upgrades could also escalate dramatically.
One current service official told the New York Times last year that the USS Ford was expected to obtain necessary modifications to one of the systems used to land jets on its flight deck. Those modifications have been planned for the past eight years, among the ship’s many other planned upgrades that can be completed only while in an industrial repair facility.