Editor’s note: This report has been updated.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier and warship, along with the USS Bainbridge, a guided missile destroyer, officially departed the Mediterranean for the Caribbean on Tuesday morning, according to a U.S. defense official, as both vessels made their way to South America.
The carrier completed its transit of the Strait of Gibraltar on Tuesday, a move that was made in support of the U.S. military’s increasing footprint in the region.
The Pentagon announced in an Oct. 24 social media post it would be sending the carrier and its strike group to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility in support of what the Pentagon has called continued counternarcotics efforts.
“The enhanced U.S. force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in an X post.
The USS Gerald R. Ford Strike Group contains five destroyers, including the Bainbridge, but it is unclear whether the other four destroyers will join the SOUTHCOM area of operations.
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Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. is establishing a large-scale military presence off Venezuela’s coast in support of what Trump has labeled a “non-international armed conflict” with cartels, according to a Pentagon memo sent to congressional national security committees.
Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, giving the military the power to use lethal force.
“It is the policy of the United States to ensure the total elimination of these organizations’ presence,” the order read.
Outside of the Ford, there are eight Navy vessels operating in and around the Caribbean: the USS Iwo Jima, USS Fort Lauderdale, USS San Antonio, USS Lake Erie, USS Jason Dunham, USS Gravely, USS Stockdale and USS Wichita.
Around 6,000 personnel are stationed aboard those vessels.
The U.S. has to date launched at least 15 lethal strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels, destroying 16 boats and killing 64 people.
The latest strike occurred on Nov. 1 against alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean, leaving three individuals from a U.S.-designated terrorist organization dead, according to an X post from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Riley Ceder is a reporter at Military Times, where he covers breaking news, criminal justice, investigations, and cyber. He previously worked as an investigative practicum student at The Washington Post, where he contributed to the Abused by the Badge investigation.
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