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https://news.usni.org/2025/10/24/hegseth-orders-uss-gerald-r-ford-to-u-s-southern-command

Hegseth Orders USS Gerald R. Ford to U.S. Southern Command
Mallory Shelbourne and Sam LaGrone
October 24, 2025 1:36 PM

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has tasked aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) and its escorts to U.S. Southern Command to support the Trump administration’s ongoing counter-drug efforts, a Pentagon spokesman said Friday on social media.
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As of Friday, Ford was in port in Split, Croatia, after arriving on Wednesday, according to ship spotters. Based on the carrier’s location, it will take at least one week for the carrier to sail across the Atlantic to reach the Caribbean, USNI News understands.

The Ford Carrier Strike Group deployed from Naval Station Norfolk, Va., in June with USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81), which is operating as the air defense commander, in addition to USS Bainbridge (DDG-96), USS Mahan (DDG-72), USS Mitscher (DDG-57) and USS Forrest Sherman (DDG-98) making up Destroyer Squadron 2. Carrier Air Wing 8 is embarked aboard Ford. It’s unclear which destroyers will make the journey with Ford to SOUTHCOM, a source familiar with the movements told USNI News.

As of Monday, USS Forrest Sherman (DDG-98) was operating in the Red Sea and USS Mitscher (DDG-57) was in the Arabian Sea operating independently from the strike group.
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