The world’s largest warship USS Gerald R. Ford has now entered U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility, which covers Latin America and the Caribbean.
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and her accompanying strike group has joined U.S. 4th Fleet, as per a recent press statement by U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command.
Ostensibly the strike group is being tasked with aiding efforts targeting traffickers allegedly smuggling narcotics through Caribbean and Pacific waters, though the deployment is also widely being seen through the lens of rising tensions between America and Venezuela.
The carrier and her flotilla join other warships, a nuclear-powered submarine and aircraft carrier based in Puerto Rico; together the assembled force represents the largest build-up of American military assets in the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama.
Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has announced a “massive deployment” of land, sea, air, river and missile forces, as well as civilian militia, to counter the U.S. naval presence.
The carrier strike group led by USS Gerald R.Ford includes Destroyer Squadron Two’s Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Bainbridge and USS Mahan, and the integrated air and missile defence command ship USS Winston S. Churchill.
Embarked on the carrier herself are the nine embarked squadrons of Carrier Air Wing Eight, which include F/A-18F Super Hornets, E/A-18G Growlers, an E-2D Advanced Hawkeye; and MH-60R and MH-60S Seahawk helicopters.
The U.S. administration under President Trump has escalated its campaign against the drugs trade in an unprecedented way: since September airstrikes on boats suspected to be carrying drugs, carried out by military assets, have so far killed at least 76 people in South American waters.
Recent media reports suggest the U.K. has suspended intelligence-sharing with the U.S. on suspected trafficking vessels in the Caribbean over concerns about the legality of lethal strikes. The U.K. government will not comment officially on intelligence matters, while the American administration insists the measures are appropriate because smugglers are regarded as combatants in an “armed conflict” with the U.S.
Talking about the carrier strike group deployment, Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell commented: “The enhanced U.S. force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR 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.
“These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organizations.”
- You can read more details on the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command website