A significant amount of additional firepower is being sent to support President Donald Trump’s new drug war.
The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, led by the Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier, and its embarked carrier air wing will be diverted from the Mediterranean to the US Southern Command area of responsibility, according to a Friday Pentagon statement. The move marks a notable expansion of US military forces in the region.
SOUTHCOM’s area of responsibility covers Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the surrounding waters.
The directive from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth aligns with President Donald Trump’s aim to “dismantle” criminal organizations and “counter narco-terrorism in defense of the Homeland,” said Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell in a statement.
A carrier strike group brings substantially more firepower and capabilities to any potential fight than the amphibious ready group already in the region. The current US force presence in the region is unusual for the counter-narcotics mission.
The Ford and the other warships in the strike group will join over half a dozen other US combat vessels routed to the Caribbean in recent months, including the three-ship Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which includes Marines trained in emergency combat operations.
“The enhanced US force presence in the USSOUTHCOM [area of responsibility] will bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” the Pentagon statement said.
Prior to the release of the statement, SOUTHCOM shared the following video of recent activities in its area of operations.
The Ford departed in January for deployment to the 6th Fleet region, which includes Europe and North Africa.
The advanced carrier with its host of new technologies was commissioned in July 2017 and cost a whopping $13 billion. It’s the largest aircraft carrier in the world, capable of carrying 75 aircraft, including F/A-18 Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers, early warning planes, and helicopters for a range of combat missions.
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Escort ships, often destroyers, carry the ability to launch offensive and defensive missiles.
Beyond the warship activity in SOUTHCOM’s area of operations, thousands of troops, advanced F-35 stealth fighters, and US bombers have also been active in the region amid not just efforts to clamp down on drug trafficking, but also rising tensions with Venezuela, recognized as a source of illegal narcotics.
US forces have struck at least ten targets since September and killed at least 43 people, which administration officials say is part of curbing the flow of drugs into the US. Eight strikes have occurred in the Caribbean. This week, US forces struck a pair of targets in the Pacific.
The Trump administration designated drug cartels as transnational criminal organizations earlier this year, an important delineation that unlocks special legal authorities and eliminates due process for suspected combatants.
It’s unclear whether all targeted vessels were engaged in illicit activity. The scope of the US military’s authority in such cases has also been the subject of debate. Without proper authority, US personnel risk acting outside the law if civilians, rather than armed combatants, are killed.
