The USS Gerald R. Ford, the United States’ largest and most technologically advanced aircraft carrier, is on track to break the record for the longest deployment of an aircraft carrier since the Vietnam War. The $13 billion vessel, which carries roughly 4,500 sailors and dozens of tactical aircraft, has been at sea since it departed Virginia last June. The military has formally extended the trip twice.
What began as a scheduled Atlantic deployment has turned into something far more demanding, shaped by a cascade of crises that have kept the ship in near-constant motion for the better part of a year.
From Norway to Venezuela to Iran
The Ford’s journey reads less like a military itinerary and more like a global crisis checklist. After initially heading toward the Mediterranean and up to Norway as part of its planned route, the ship was abruptly redirected to the Caribbean to support the operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January. From there, it was ordered to make a rapid transit toward the Middle East as war with Iran approached, pausing along the way to address a malfunction with the ship’s toilets.
Once in the region, the Ford became the centerpiece of the US-Iran conflict, launching wave after wave of aircraft as American forces shifted from primarily using stand-off weapons to bombs dropped by aircraft flying inside Iranian airspace. The ship stopped in Greece for repairs, made an additional port call in Croatia, and was back at sea in time to be on standby for President Donald Trump’s threatened infrastructure strikes against Iran. Even before Trump announced a ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday, the Ford’s leadership had informed sailors that the ship expected to return to the United States in May.
A fire, a flooded laundry room and fraying cables
In mid-March, while the Ford was operating in the eastern Mediterranean, a fire broke out in the ship’s laundry department. It took the crew 30 hours to fully contain, clean up and ensure it would not reignite. Around 600 sailors temporarily lost access to their bunks as a result of the damage, and laundry services were knocked out across the ship. No one was seriously hurt. Two days after the blaze, the Ford was flying sorties again.
The fire and the earlier toilet malfunction are specific to the Ford, but long deployments typically bring a creeping accumulation of wear problems regardless of which ship is involved. Arresting cables used to catch landing aircraft begin to fray. Saltwater works its way into shipboard systems. What starts as minor issues tends to compound over time into something harder to manage with improvised at-sea repairs. Sources familiar with internal Navy discussions said that those factors, combined with the high volume of sorties the Ford has been flying, increase the chances of a potential mishap.
What makes the Ford irreplaceable
The Ford is the newest of the 11 US nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and the only one equipped with an electronic catapult system capable of launching everything from small drones to large strike aircraft. That flexibility has made it uniquely valuable to commanders managing an operation as complex as the Iran war.
Brent Sadler, a 26-year Navy veteran and former submarine officer, said the Ford has functioned as the tip of the spear for operations that the US military would have struggled to sustain without it. He also warned that the strain on the ship reflects a broader challenge for the Navy as it looks toward a future that could include conflict with China in the Pacific.
The toll on families at home
The deployment has weighed on families ashore. Amini Osias, whose daughter serves as an aviation electrician on the Ford, described living with constant uncertainty and said he sometimes struggles to sleep. When an Iranian military strike downed a US fighter jet this month, the danger felt immediate. He said he found himself asking whether the conflict was something the United States should have entered in the first place, and whether it was worth sending his daughter and others to fight it.
Extended deployments tend to leave lingering effects on sailors and families even after the ship returns home, current and former military officials said. For now, the Ford’s crew is finishing one of the most consequential deployments in recent Navy history, and counting the days until May.
