Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Bainbridge transits the Suez Canal along with the USS Gerald R. Ford, March 5, 2026. (U.S. Navy)
NAPLES, Italy — The Navy’s newest and world’s largest aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is now operating in the Middle East’s waterways, an arrival that could signal intensified U.S. attacks against Iran.
Ford, along with the destroyer USS Bainbridge, transited the Suez Canal on Thursday, according to photos released by the Defense Department on Friday. Ford had been operating in the eastern Mediterranean Sea as part of Operation Epic Fury.
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and several destroyers are in the Arabian Sea.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump promised that the U.S. would pummel Iran even more intensely along with potential strikes against other unidentified groups. Some Iranian-backed militias and groups, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, have entered the war in support of Iran.
“Today Iran will be hit very hard!” Trump wrote in a post to his Truth Social account. “Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran’s bad behavior, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time.”
Trump’s post followed a prerecorded address on Iranian state television the same day from Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian during which he apologized for the country’s attacks on its neighbors. He insisted that Tehran would halt them and suggested they were caused by miscommunication in the ranks, The Associated Press reported on Saturday.
Pezeshkian also said that a demand by the U.S. for an unconditional surrender is a “dream that they should take to their grave,” according to the AP.
In his post on Saturday, Trump characterized Iran’s apology as an admission of defeat to its Middle East neighboring countries that came only after “relentless U.S. and Israeli attack.”
Ford’s arrival in the Red Sea comes as Iran has continued attacking nearby countries and U.S. military installations in the region.
As of early Saturday afternoon, air defense sirens in Bahrain’s capital city of Manama had warned of incoming Iranian missiles or drones at least five times since early morning. On Friday, Iranian drone strikes in Manama targeted two residential buildings and a facility housing the Israeli Embassy.
The city is home to U.S. Naval Support Activity Bahrain, which hosts U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet. Thousands of sailors and their families reside in Manama.
The base is one of numerous U.S. installations that have come under attack across the Middle East since the war began a week ago. Bases in Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan also have been targeted.
It’s not clear if other elements of the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group also left the Mediterranean.
The Ford group also includes the destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill, which is functioning as the air and missile defense commander, and the destroyer USS Mahan, USNI News reported on Monday.
Additionally, four other destroyers — USS Roosevelt, USS Bulkeley, USS Oscar Austin and USS Thomas Hudner — were operating in the eastern Mediterranean.
Earlier in the week Trump said he would order the U.S. Navy to begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, if needed, to ensure the free flow of oil and other energy sources.
The strait is a narrow chokepoint connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
About 20 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products, or about 20% of the world’s total consumption, are transported through the strait each day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
