The Pentagon ordered the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to sail to the Caribbean, adding one of the Navy's largest and most potent formations to the major U.S. build-up in the region. The new deployment will add the aircraft carrier's more than 70 aircraft and multiple destroyers to the array of firepower already sent to the region for a mission the White House insists is aimed at drug traffickers.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed the deployment in a statement, saying the strike group would be "in support of the President's directive to dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) and counter narco-terrorism."

Carrier Strike Group 12 includes the USS Gerald R. Ford, the destroyers USS Bainbridge and USS Mahan and Carrier Air Wing 8. Their arrival makes this fall's buildup one of the largest deployments of naval power since the start of the Red Sea conflict in late 2023. The strike group's air contingent includes four squadrons of F/A-18 fighters and one squadron of E/A-18G strike fighters.

Word of the deployment came shortly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced another airstrike on a civilian vessel in the Caribbean. Hegseth said the strike killed six on board, a tally which would bring the death toll in U.S. strikes on boats in the region to 43 since September, according to White House figures.

Hegseth accused the crew of being members of the gang Tren de Aragua, a group the administration has often linked to the boats with little public evidence. It was the 10th strike in total, and the third one in as many days.

Governments and media in the region have reported that those killed or wounded in U.S. strikes have included citizens from Colombia, Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago. At least two sailors have been rescued by U.S. forces after surviving strikes on their boats, including an Ecuadorian man who was released days later when authorities in his country said there was no evidence of a crime to charge him with.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration designated several gangs and drug cartels as "foreign terrorist organizations," and accused the Venezuelan government of collaborating with them. The White House has advised Congress that the U.S. is in an "armed conflict" with these gangs, but no Congressional authorization for the use of force has been given.

Parnell said that the Ford Strike Group 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."

The largest carrier adds to naval armada

The USS Gerald R. Ford is the Navy's largest aircraft carrier. It was one of two carrier strike groups rushed to the Middle East in October 2023 as part of a show of force and spent three months deployed there. The Navy amassed a large force at sea near Yemen for a year and a half, deploying multiple carrier strike groups — often with two deployed there at the same time — while fighting against Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and surrounding waters.

The Ford strike group is currently in the Mediterranean Sea. It will join a large contingent of ships, including three destroyers and the three-ship Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group on which the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit is embarked.

The current force already includes more than 6,000 troops. Additionally, the U.S. has flown several U.S. Air Force B-52s and B-1 bombers near Venezuela this month. Marine Corps F-35 fighter jets and several military drones have been deployed to Puerto Rico and SOUTHCOM has said it is organizing its forces deployed for counter-narcotics operations into a joint task force overseen by II Marine Expeditionary Force.