WASHINGTON — After months of extra duty at sea providing protection for Israel, the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group will be heading home, the Navy announced Monday.
The Ford and its accompanying warships will be replaced by the amphibious assault ship the USS Bataan and its accompanying warships, the USS Mesa Verde and the USS Carter Hall. The three vessels had been in the Red Sea and have been transiting toward the Eastern Mediterranean over the last few days.
The Ford will sail for home “in the coming days,” the US 6th Fleet, the European-based US naval command that’s responsible for ships sailing in the Mediterranean, said in a statement.
The Ford was sent to the Eastern Mediterranean to be within striking distance of Israel since the day after Hamas’ October 7 attacks, when thousands of terrorists launched a murderous invasion of southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking some 240 people hostage.
A new generation aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford is a 100,000-ton nuclear-powered ship equipped with new technologies.
After Hamas’ bloody attack on Israel, Washington provided military support to Israel and reinforced its forces in the region, including the USS Gerald R. Ford and other warships. These moves and others to boost US military readiness in the Middle East came with warning to Iran, which backs Hamas, and to terror group Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon.
The carrier stayed in the Eastern Mediterranean while its accompanying warships had sailed into the Red Sea, where they repeatedly intercepted incoming ballistic missiles and attack drones fired from Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Sent to “contribute to our regional deterrence and defense posture,” the carrier will “redeploy to its home port as scheduled to prepare for future deployments,” the Navy said in the statement.
“The Department of Defense continually evaluates force posture globally and will retain extensive capability both in the Mediterranean and across the Middle East,” the statement added.
The Navy said it was “collaborating with Allies and partners to bolster maritime security in the region.”
It noted that the Defense Department will continue to rely on the presence of its forces in the region “to deter any state or non-state actor from escalating this crisis beyond Gaza.”
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited the Ford last month.
Since it was extended in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Ford and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier have been part of a two-carrier presence bracketing the Israel-Hamas war, underscoring US concerns that the conflict will widen. The Eisenhower has recently patrolled near the Gulf of Aden, at the mouth of the Red Sea waterway, where so many commercial vessels have come under attack in recent weeks.
On Sunday, helicopters from the Eisenhower and its destroyer the USS Gravely responded to a distress call from the container ship Maersk Hangzhou, which was under attack by four Iranian-backed Houthi small boats. As the helicopters responded, the boats fired at them with crew-served weapons and small arms and the helicopters returned fire, sinking three of the four boats and killing their crews, the US Central Command said.
The incessant attacks on the commercial ships have led some companies to suspend transits through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Gulf of Aden to the southern Red Sea and then the Suez Canal.
The Bataan’s accompanying warship the Mesa Verde is a transport dock ship, carrying approximately 2,000 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Those Marines provide “forces capable of supporting a wide range of missions,” the US 6th Fleet said.
The Carter Hall is a dock landing ship, which carries amphibious landing craft and their crews. Both vessels and the Bataan can support rotary aircraft; the Bataan can also carry and support Marine Corps’ F-35 vertical takeoff fighter aircraft.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.