The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford leaves the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar on Nov. 4, 2025. Last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Ford Carrier Strike Group to U.S. Southern Command as part of a buildup of U.S. forces there to combat drug trafficking and transnational criminal organizations. (Michael Sanchez via X)

NAPLES, Italy — The Ford Carrier Strike Group’s departure this week from the Mediterranean Sea will leave Europe and the Middle East without an aircraft carrier presence while concentrating naval firepower in Latin America.

Although it’s unclear when the strike group will arrive in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility, the surge of naval forces there would put nearly 20% of the service’s deployed warships in the region, according to Stars and Stripes’ analysis of data from the USNI News fleet tracker.

Photographs posted to X by ship-spotters based in Gibraltar show the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and the destroyer USS Bainbridge transiting the Strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday. The ships presumably will join remaining strike group members, the destroyers USS Winston S. Churchill and USS Mahan in the Atlantic.

A U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet spokesperson said the command couldn’t discuss current operations out of concern for operational security.

Last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the carrier strike group to SOUTHCOM to bolster U.S. efforts there to disrupt drug trafficking and degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organizations.

The command’s area of responsibility includes waters adjacent to Central and South America, and the land mass of Latin America south of Mexico.

It appears that besides stopping drug trafficking, the U.S. also aims to get Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to step down, said James Holmes, chair of the maritime strategy program at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.

“The first we can do at sea, in theory at least, without a carrier group,” Holmes said “But I have a hard time seeing sea power accomplish the second, carrier group or not.”

Ford would bring at least 4,500 more sailors and nine aircraft squadrons to the U.S. presence in the area.

The destroyer USS Bainbridge, part of the Ford Carrier Strike Group, transits the Strait of Gibraltar on Nov. 4, 2025. The carrier strike group is heading to Latin America, where it will join a concentration of U.S. forces in a mission against drug trafficking and transnational criminal organizations.   (Michael Sanchez via X)

That level of firepower seems like overkill for the current mission in the Caribbean, said Bryan Clark, a retired Navy officer and director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Defense Concepts and Technology.

But the addition would be an efficient way to sustain strikes against targets ashore, Clark said, noting that the U.S. doesn’t have any land bases in Central or South America.

And fighter jets flying out of Puerto Rico would require air tankers to conduct missions over South America, he said.

In addition to the three ships that make up the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, the destroyers USS Gravely, USS Stockdale and USS Jason Dunham, the cruiser Lake Erie and the littoral combat ship USS Wichita, the U.S. presence in Latin America includes Navy P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, MQ-9 Reaper drones, an F-35 fighter squadron and more than 6,000 sailors and Marines.

Meanwhile, the reduced Navy presence in Europe and the Middle East isn’t of great concern in the current threat environment, said Bradley Martin, a retired Navy surface warfare officer and director of the Rand Corp. National Security Supply Chain Institute.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023, the Navy has kept a nearly constant carrier or amphibious ready group presence in Europe and the Middle East.

Last month, the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz left the Middle East after three months in the region.

There are five destroyers assigned to Naval Station Rota in Spain. One of them, USS Roosevelt, is stationed in the Mediterranean Sea, while two others, USS Forest Sherman and USS Mitscher, are in the Red Sea, according to the USNI News fleet tracker.

That muscle — along with other U.S. forces, such as Air Force squadrons stationed in Europe and the Middle East — should provide ample response should a hostile actor be tempted, Martin said.

He added that Nimitz, now on duty in the South China Sea, could be recalled to the Middle East.

Ford left its homeport in Norfolk, Va., in June for a routine deployment to NAVEUR-AF.