U.S. sends aircraft carrier to South America in major escalation of military firepower

"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to the U.S. Southern Command region to "bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on social media. The USS Ford, which has five destroyers in its strike group, is now deployed to the Mediterranean Sea."

"One of its destroyers is in the Arabian Sea and another is in the Red Sea, a person familiar with the operation told The Associated Press. As of Friday, the aircraft carrier was in port in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, would not say how long it would take for the strike group to arrive in the waters off South America or if all five destroyers would make the journey."

"Deploying an aircraft carrier will surge major additional resources to a region that has already seen an unusually large U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off Venezuela. The latest deployment and the quickening pace of the U.S. strikes, including one Friday, raised new speculation about how far the Trump administration may go in operations it says are targeted at drug trafficking, including whether it could try to topple Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to the U.S. Southern Command region to bolster detection, monitoring and disruption of illicit actors and activities. The carrier is presently deployed to the Mediterranean Sea, with one destroyer in the Arabian Sea and another in the Red Sea, and the carrier was in port in Croatia as of Friday. Officials declined to specify timing or whether all five destroyers will accompany the strike group. The deployment adds to a large U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean and off Venezuela amid accelerated strikes against suspected drug-smuggling vessels. If the full Ford strike group arrives, nearly 4,500 additional sailors could join existing forces.

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