Navy
Gerald R. Ford strike group enters Caribbean Sea
From staff and wire reports
November 16, 2025
The U.S. Navy’s Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, including the flagship USS Gerald R. Ford, left, USS Winston S. Churchill, front, USS Mahan, back, USS Bainbridge, and embarked Carrier Air Wing Eight F/A-18E/F Super Hornets assigned to Strike Fighter Squadrons 31, 37, 87, and 213 on Nov. 13, 2025. (Tajh Payne/U.S. Navy)
The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group transited the Anegada Passage and entered the Caribbean Sea on Sunday, according to a service news release.
The strike group will join U.S. forces already operating in the region — including the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and its embarked Marine expeditionary unit — as part of Joint Task Force Southern Spear.
It will be the largest U.S. military presence in the Caribbean in decades, with nearly 20% of the Navy’s deployed warships in the region, according to Stars and Stripes’ analysis of data from the USNI News fleet tracker.
“Through unwavering commitment and the precise use of our forces, we stand ready to combat the transnational threats that seek to destabilize our region,” Adm. Alvin Holsey, commander of U.S. Southern Command, said in the release. Holsey announced in October he would retire by the end of 2025, less than a year into his tenure.
The U.S. Navy’s Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, including the flagship USS Gerald R. Ford, front, USS Winston S. Churchill, right, USS Mahan, left, USS Bainbridge, and embarked Carrier Air Wing Eight F/A-18E/F Super Hornets assigned to Strike Fighter Squadrons 31, 37, 87, and 213 on Nov. 13, 2025. (Gladjimi Balisage/U.S. Navy)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month ordered the strike group to U.S. Southern Command to bolster U.S. efforts there to disrupt drug trafficking and degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organizations.
On Friday, President Donald Trump said he has decided on his next steps toward Venezuela, signaling that the U.S. may take new military action as it increases its forces in the Caribbean, the Miami Herald reported.
The Washington Post reported that Trump had met with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and senior Pentagon officials on Friday to discuss options to advance the administration’s strategy against Venezuela, whose leadership U.S. officials increasingly accuse of turning the country into a narco-state.
The carrier strike group departed for deployment from Naval Station Norfolk, Va., in June, with eight warships, P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, MQ-9 Reaper drones, an F-35 fighter squadron and more than 6,000 sailors and Marines.
Alongside Gerald R. Ford, the carrier strike group includes the nine embarked squadrons of Carrier Air Wing Eight, Destroyer Squadron Two’s Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Bainbridge and USS Mahan and the integrated air and missile defense command ship USS Winston S. Churchill.