The U.S. military is deploying an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, marking the latest escalation and buildup of American forces in the region, the Pentagon announced Friday.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its accompanying strike group to operate under U.S. Southern Command to “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States.” The US has recently targetted what it claims are drug-laden speedboats off Venezuela and Colombia, with the loss of dozens of lifes.
The USS Ford, which leads a strike group of five destroyers, is currently stationed in the Mediterranean Sea. According to a person familiar with the operation, one destroyer is positioned in the Arabian Sea and another in the Red Sea. As of the announcement, the Ford was docked in Croatia, on the Adriatic Sea.
The individual, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military movements, declined to specify how long it would take for the strike group to reach the waters off South America or whether all five destroyers would accompany the carrier.