ABC News, citing unnamed US officials, reported yesterday that the U.S. will soon be withdrawing the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and its battle group from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, and returning it home to Norfolk. The carrier deployed from Norfolk on May 2, 2023.
Two U.S. officials told ABC News that the carrier and other surface ships that make up the strike group will return to the carrier’s home port of Norfolk, Virginia in the “coming days,” as originally scheduled, in order to prepare for future deployments. The senior U.S. official stressed that the carrier’s return will keep to that schedule and that even with the Ford’s departure, the United States will still have a lot of military capability in the region and flexibility, including the deployment of additional cruisers and destroyers in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
