U.S. Deploys Aircraft Carrier to Latin America as Drug Operation Expands - The New York Times

U.S. Deploys Aircraft Carrier to Latin America as Drug Operation Expands

"The Trump administration has acknowledged 10 strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats from South America, which have killed 43 people.

Oct. 24, 2025Updated 6:05 p.m. ET

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, shown on Monday, announced on Friday that six people were killed by the U.S. military in a strike on a vessel in the Caribbean Sea.Doug Mills/The New York Times

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the deployment of the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford as well as its accompanying warships and attack planes to waters off Latin America, the Pentagon said on Friday, in a dramatic escalation of military might in the region.

The enhanced American presence “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 and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said on social media.

Mr. Parnell did not say when the Ford, the Navy’s most modern and technologically advanced carrier, would be moving to the region or where it would be positioned. Navy officials said on Friday that the Ford is currently steaming off the coast of Croatia on a monthslong European deployment and would take seven to 10 days, depending on speed and weather conditions, to reach its new assigned mission with U.S. Southern Command.

Since late August, the U.S. military has deployed about 10,000 troops to the Caribbean, about half of them on eight warships and half in Puerto Rico, for what the administration says is a counterterrorism and counternarcotics mission. The Ford carries about 5,000 sailors and has more than 75 attack, surveillance and support aircraft, including F/A-18 fighters.

Aircraft carriers have toured the waters in the Caribbean and off Latin America before on what the Navy calls “good will” tours. But cutting short the Ford’s scheduled deployment by several months and redirecting it to Latin America for a possible combat mission amid the intensifying U.S. strikes on boats the administration says are carrying drugs is highly unusual, current and former Navy officials said.

“By adding the Ford to the already existing forces, this is a uniquely powerful naval combat group in the Caribbean in my memory,” said Adm. James Stavridis, a former head of U.S. Southern Command, now retired.

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U.S. Deploys Aircraft Carrier to Latin America as Drug Operation Expands - The New York Times