The U.S. Navy’s USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier is expected to end its record-long deployment after spending more than 300 days away from its home port, with the ship departing the Middle East in the coming days and returning to Virginia in mid-May, two U.S. officials said Wednesday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive military movements, said the Ford’s long deployment included participation in the war against Iran and an operation involving Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. They said the ship would depart the Middle East after completing those missions and then make the return to Virginia on a schedule set for mid-May.
The deployment has been unfolding across multiple regions as U.S. naval operations expanded during the Iran war. After the Ford began its deployment by heading to the Mediterranean Sea, it was later rerouted to the Caribbean Sea in October as part of what the officials described as the largest naval buildup in generations. The carrier then moved into operations connected to the Middle East as tensions with Tehran increased.
Earlier in the war, the Ford took part from the Mediterranean Sea and then went through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea in early March, according to the officials. The ship’s timeline also included a setback: a fire in one of its laundry spaces forced the carrier to turn around and return to the Mediterranean Sea for repairs, leaving hundreds of sailors without places to sleep, the officials said.
The officials tied the carrier’s length of time at sea to the shifting operational demand of the conflict. They said the Ford’s extension came as requirements changed in real time as the carrier operated under U.S. regional commands—U.S. Southern Command, which oversees Latin America, and U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East. In a hearing Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he consulted with the Navy about the extended deployment and that readiness and maintenance tradeoffs were among the considerations.
Hegseth said: “Multiple times the operational requirements — whether it was down in Southcom or up to Centcom — demanded additional assets in real time, which through a tough decision-making process led to an extension,” referring to the two commands.
Wednesday’s comments came as the Ford approached the end of the longest post-Vietnam War deployment for a U.S. aircraft carrier, a nearly 10-month span that began after the ship left Naval Station Norfolk in June. The officials said the ship’s 295th day at sea surpassed the previous longest deployment for an aircraft carrier in the past 50 years, which they traced to the USS Abraham Lincoln’s 294 days in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The officials and supporting reporting also placed the Ford’s time at sea in historical context. The Ford’s 295-day deployment, they said, falls short of the longest deployment during the Cold War, a record held by the now-decommissioned USS Midway, which deployed for 332 days in 1972 and 1973. They also cited more recent comparisons involving the USS Nimitz, noting that its crew was on duty away from home for a total of 341 days in 2020 and 2021, including extended isolation periods ashore in the U.S. to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The Ford’s extended deployment has also raised questions about strain on the ship and on service members who remain away from home for long periods. The officials said the carrier had already endured a fire that required lengthy repairs, and the Ford’s prolonged time at sea has intensified concerns about readiness and maintenance.
As the Ford’s return approaches, the deployment has been part of a wider U.S. naval presence during the Iran war. The arrival of the USS George H.W. Bush to the region last week meant three U.S. aircraft carriers were deployed to the Middle East—a number not seen since 2003—during what officials described as a tenuous ceasefire in the Iran war, while the USS Abraham Lincoln has also been in the region since January as tensions with Tehran ramped up.
This story follows prior reporting on the Ford’s post-Vietnam deployment milestone; MSI previously reported that the USS Gerald R. Ford broke that record on April 16 in another report.