US returning supercarrier to home port, following deployment in eastern Mediterranean in support of Israel.
By Susan Tawil, World Israel News
The U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, sent to the eastern Mediterranean as a sign of support for Israel after the October 7th Hamas terror attacks, will now be returning to its home port in Norfolk, Virginia.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the ship was sent to the eastern Mediterranean “to deter hostile actions against Israel, or any efforts at widening the war.”
The Gerald Ford, named for America’s 38 President, who served in the Navy in World War II, is the world’s largest warship. It has been described as “the biggest, baddest warship” by the US Navy.
The supercarrier is 1,100 feet in length (more than three football fields) and 180 feet wide. It weighs 100,000 tons and is powered by two nuclear reactors. The ship carries 90 aircraft, including Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets, each of which have a thousand-mile range and carry up to 18,000 pounds of weapons.
There is a full hospital on board, as well as a gym (complete with a boxing ring), a supermarket, lounges, and three months of food, fuel, and equipment to supply its crew. Together with the Ford’s accompanying ships—the USS Normandy and four other guided missile destroyers—there are 6,000 sailors in the fleet. The U.S.S. Gerald Ford cost $13 billion, almost as much as Israel’s total annual defense budget.
Although the U.S.S. Ford and its fleet is returning to the U.S. “to prepare for future deployments,” America will be maintaining its military presence in the Mediterranean with other cruisers, destroyers, and fighter jets. The Ford’s fleet will be replaced by the U.S.S. Bataan, the U.S.S. Mesa Verde, and the U.S.S. Carter Hall, along with aircraft and a crew of 2,200 Marines. Defense Secretary Austin says “this underscores the United States’ ironclad support for the Israel Defense Force and the Israeli people.”
On Sunday, helicopters from the U.S.S. Eisenhower and the U.S.S. Gravely rescued a commercial vessel, the Maersk Hangzhou from Singapore, from an attack by four Houthi boats. Navy helicopters sank three of the four Houthi boats, killing the crews; the fourth boat fled.
The terrorist attacks from Yemen by Iran-backed Houthis on container ships is causing many commercial companies to re-route their merchant vessels from the Red Sea’s Bab el-Mandeb Strait, raising shipping costs in consequence. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said there was a critical need to keep the Red Sea shipping corridor safe and open for international commerce. The U.S.S. Dwight Eisenhower will remain with its fleet in the Gulf of Aden, near Yemen, to deter the ongoing Islamist Houthi attacks on cargo ships.