US Navy Ends Carrier Deployment for Caribbean Drug Interdiction Ops

The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group has concluded its over 100-day deployment in the Caribbean, where it supported U.S. Southern Command's Operation Southern Spear. The group, which included the Ford itself, Carrier Air Wing 8, and guided-missile destroyers USS Winston S. Churchill, USS Bainbridge, and USS Mahan, was redirected from the Middle East to conduct maritime operations targeting drug-trafficking vessels. These efforts were part of a broader Pentagon strategy involving kinetic s