Sailors prepare to tow a F/A-18E Super Hornet on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) during flight operations in the Pacific Ocean, April 3, 2026. Nimitz is deployed as part of Southern Seas 2026. (Jaron Wills/U.S. Navy)
The U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations wants to come up with an “enduring naval package” capable of responding in the Southern Command area without an aircraft carrier.
“I want to reserve the carrier ... for power projection and deterrence in the theaters that really need that kind of capability,” Adm. Daryl Caudle said March 31 at the Maritime Security Dialogue in Washington, D.C. The event was co-hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the U.S. Naval Institute.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, the Navy has at times strained under a shift in strategic priorities and military activity around the world.
Caudle said commanders in all theaters want carriers as the paramount response to outside threats. But with China and Russia operating in the Indo-Pacific, the war in Ukraine, and the Middle East conflict that stretches from the Arabian Sea north to the Mediterranean Sea, the demand for carriers outstrips the supply when maintenance periods are factored into plans.
Congress requires that the Navy maintain a minimum of 11 aircraft carriers, but at any given time about a third are in maintenance ranging from months to years. Others are training for a deployment or have just returned from months at sea.
Southern Command — which includes the Atlantic and Pacific on either side of Central and South America, along with the Caribbean — is a possible place to look at a different kind of response, Caudle said.
The key to the Southern Command region is “maritime domain awareness,” Caudle said, essentially knowing what is going on at sea in the region in real time. Southern Command’s “main problem set” is drug interdiction, traditionally handled by the U.S. Coast Guard, Caudle said.
The 2026 National Defense Strategy promises to “provide President Trump with credible military options to use against narco-terrorists wherever they may be.”
So last summer and fall, the Pentagon surged naval assets to the western Atlantic, Caribbean and eastern Pacific, major hubs for drug trafficking.
The USS Gerald R. Ford transits the Caribbean Sea on Jan. 19, 2026. The Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, arrived in the Middle East this month amid a rapid buildup of U.S. military assets near Iran. (Nathan Sears/U.S. Navy)
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group were part of the buildup. It linked up with the USS Iowa Jima Amphibious Ready Group, carrying up to 2,500 Marines as the U.S. ramped up assets for a possible invasion of Venezuela.
Instead of an invasion, U.S. special forces captured Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, who was flown to the United States to face indictment on drug and other charges.
“With Venezuela, as you know, the war was over in about 45 minutes,” Trump said during a news conference this week at the White House.
During the overall campaign against traffickers, warships — including Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers — have worked in tandem with the Coast Guard to strike 47 ships and sites the administration says are tied to international illicit drug trafficking. An estimated 160 people have been killed, according to the Pentagon.
But now that Maduro has been dislodged from power, the U.S. faces no significant military opponent in South America.
“They got the guy they wanted — there’s nothing left they’d need an aircraft carrier to do,” said Mark Cancian, a former Marine officer who is an analyst for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The Ford then returned to the Middle East, where it took up a central role in the joint Israeli-U.S. attacks on Iran that began Feb. 28.
This weekend, the Ford will break the consecutive days deployed record held by the USS Abraham Lincoln, which spent 281 days deployed in 2022.
“For those that are not in the Navy, that’s an extraordinary thing to even think about something of that kind of deployment length,” Caudle said. “So my hat’s off to the Ford.”
Caudle said he was seeking ways to triage the military response in the Southern Command region so that aircraft carriers aren’t automatically dispatched again.
U.S. Army Gen. Francis L. Donovan, the Southcom commander, needs ships, aircraft and other resources to match the demands that arise in the region.
“What does Gen. Donovan need an ‘enduring package’ to look like?” Caudle said.
Options mentioned include a forward staging base. Southern Command currently operates from its headquarters in Doral, Fla.
Army soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment, Joint Task Force-Bravo, prepare to transfer UH-60L Black Hawks at Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras, on March 20, 2026. (Alexander Merchak/U.S. Air Force)
Unlike Europe and Asia, where the U.S. has large military installations, the American presence in Central and South America is relatively small.
The U.S. operates a large base in at Comayagua, in Honduras, Soto Cano Air Base. And the U.S. has retained Naval Base Guantánamo Bay, in Cuba, but it is primarily used for logistics and detention of prisoners.
Caudle said it could mean assigning a littoral combat ship — designed for coastal operations — or an amphibious transport dock that could carry a ready-response Marine unit.
“Can I put together a thing that solves his problem?” Caudle said.
Cancian said the U.S. could redevelop and expand facilities at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico. Or it could work with an allied country to build a joint base, and the U.S. could pay for airport runway improvements, for instance.
The crux of the issue in the region is that operations have largely been the job of the Coast Guard.
“I would imagine there is a lot of intense conversation going on right now between the Navy and the Coast Guard, with the Navy saying these roles are for the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard saying we don’t have the personnel or equipment for the job,” Cancian said. “There’s a lot of money in the pipeline for the Coast Guard, but it will take years for major changes.”
Having aircraft carriers off Venezuela when the U.S. was threatening a major bombing campaign or full-scale invasion might have made sense, Cancian said. And, Trump may harbor a desire to topple the communist government in Cuba.
But overall, Cancian said, there aren’t the kind of threats in the region that Trump has designated as America’s top priority that require a major military response.
“Whatever the ‘enduring naval package’ that Adm. Caudle puts together, it will have to be stitched together over time if we’re seeking a long-term presence,” he said.
U.S. Coast Guard cutters Diligence and Stone join the USS Stockdale for a joint patrol in the Bay of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Feb. 3, 2026. (Gabriel Irby/U.S. Coast Guard)
