Ford's Record Deployment to End After 10 Months

UPDATE Apr 29, 2026 4:00 PM CDT

The USS Gerald R. Ford and its 4,500 sailors are days away from sailing for home. The return of the Ford, which has been deployed in the Middle East for 10 months, is a major reduction in US naval might there, the Washington Post reports; it's the world's largest aircraft carrier. The carriers USS George HW Bush and the USS Abraham Lincoln, which are enforcing the US blockade, remain. The length of the Ford's deployment, and the effect on its crew, have been a subject of concern, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was questioned about it on Wednesday in a congressional hearing. "A tough decision-making process led to the extension," Hegseth said, "in consultation with the Navy." Deployments usually are held to six or seven months.

Apr 15, 2026 6:40 PM CDT

The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, broke the US record Wednesday for the longest post-Vietnam War deployment, a nearly 10-month span that saw it take part in both the military raid in Venezuela and the Iran war. The previous longest deployment by an aircraft carrier in the past 50 years was held by the USS Abraham Lincoln, set when it was sent out for 294 days in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data compiled by US Naval Institute News, a news outlet run by the nonprofit US Naval Institute. The duration raises questions, the AP reports.

They include the effect on service members away from home for long periods as well as increasing strain on the ship and its equipment, with the carrier already enduring a fire that forced it to undergo lengthy repairs. Three sailors were hurt in the blaze and hundreds were left without a place to sleep; the Navy has provided little information about the fire, per Stars and Stripes. The Ford began its deployment in June 2025, heading to the Mediterranean Sea from its home port in Norfolk, Virginia. The military rerouted it to the Caribbean Sea in October as part of the largest naval buildup in the region in generations. The carrier took part in the military operation to capture then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Then it would see more battle, heading toward the Middle East as tensions with Iran escalated, per the AP.

The carrier took part in the opening days of the Iran war from the Mediterranean Sea before going through the Suez Canal and heading into the Red Sea in early March. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine said the record-breaking deployment has taken "a serious toll" on the mental health and well-being of crew members. "They should be home with their loved ones, not sent around the world by a President who acts like the US military is his palace guard," the Democrat said in a statement. Pentagon officials have not said how long the Ford will be deployed, but the Navy's two highest-ranking officers said publicly that they expect the ship to be deployed for around 11 months. That would put it returning home in late May. The Ford's 295-day deployment falls short of the longest deployment during the Cold War; the USS Midway was deployed for 332 days in 1972 and 1973.