USS Gerald R Ford breaks record for longest US aircraft carrier deployment since Vietnam war
You are looking at a record breaker – the USS Gerald R Ford has been deployed for longer than any other US aircraft carrier since the Vietnam war.
15 April 2026 will see the $13 billion vessel, which carries roughly 4,500 sailors and dozens of tactical aircraft, reach the major milestone of 295 days of continuous deployment at sea.
Since departing Virginia last summer, her epic deployment has been formally extended by the military twice, and she has made three crossings of the Atlantic and sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar five times.
What has the deployment involved?
She left Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, on 24 June 2025, crossing the Atlantic and entering the Mediterranean for the first time as part of her latest scheduled deployment.
After taking part in Nato exercises in the Adriatic and central Med in early August, the carrier group headed north, sailing through the English Channel and entering the North Sea.
She then visited Oslo before heading into the Arctic to operate off the north Norwegian coastline.
The carrier group then sailed back into the Mediterranean and visited Split in Croatia.
Caribbean counter-narcotics operation
In late October, the carrier group was ordered to head to the Caribbean as part of a build-up of pressure on the Maduro regime in Venezuela.
After a brief stop at St Thomas, she began counter-narcotics and security missions with the first sanctioned tanker boarding taking place on 10 December.
Through December and January USS Gerald R Ford remained in the central Caribbean with the raid on Caracas to capture Nicolás Maduro taking place on 3 January.
Operation Epic Fury
In mid-February, the carrier was ordered back to the Mediterranean, conducting a rapid crossing of the Atlantic for the third time, as US forces built up pressure on Iran.
She transited the Strait of Gibraltar for the fifth time on 20 February after a brief stop in Crete and was positioned off the Israeli coast a day before the Operation Epic Fury strikes began.
Following a week of air strikes against Iran, the carrier transited the Suez Canal to continue operations in the northern Red Sea.
After only five days in the Red Sea the carrier suffered a major fire which is believed to have caused damage to the ship's laundry and part of the accommodation and injured three crew.
This resulted in Gerald R Ford heading north back through the Suez Canal after only two weeks and coming alongside in Souda Bay, Crete.
The ship then headed to Split in Croatia for a port visit before heading back to the eastern Med.
Meanwhile USS George HW Bush left Norfolk in Virginia on 31 March – the Bush carrier strike group will likely relieve the Ford strike group, so they can finally head home.
Record-breaking deployment
USS Gerald R Ford's record-breaking 295 days away means she has broken the previous post Vietnam War operational deployment record set by USS Abraham Lincoln in 2020.
During the Covid pandemic, USS Nimitz was away from her home port for more than 11 months, but this figure is not counted as a deployment metric as she was being deliberately kept in a quarantine bubble for some of the time.
Finally, spare a thought for the Arleigh Burke destroyer escorts in the Carrier Strike Group, whose crews also share the dubious record of longest deployment.
For comparison, the longest recent Royal Navy deployment was around eight months away when the carrier strike group deployed to the Far East.
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