Tag Archives: Souda naval base

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford due in Souda

The American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is expected in Souda today 22nd February amid rumours of an imminent American attack on Iran. An article in Saturday’s Haniotika Nea describes local reactions to its presence, and considers the capacities of what is generally accepted to be the largest and most technically advanced warship currently in service anywhere in the world.

Seen from above, the US aircraft carrier steams towards camera with planes on the flight deck and escorting destroyers in the background.
“The world’s most powerful warship”, the USS Gerald R. Ford, named after the 38th US President who served in the US Navy during World War II. Photo: U.S. Navy/Seaman Apprentice Alyssa Joy.

The aircraft carrier will tie up at quay K-14 at the Souda Naval Base at Marathi, where it is expected to remain for four days for resupply and R&R for the crew. The arrival has provoked reactions from anti-war organisations on the island. The Pancretan Committee Against the Bases and Military Involvement, along with other local organisations, has called for a demonstration on Tuesday 24th February at 18.00 at the Agora in Chania. “They’re not wanted in Chania! We won’t allow them to turn Souda into base of operations against other peoples,” the announcement says. adding: “The Souda base is once more being called upon to play the role jointly decided by the US and the Greek government along with their fellow travellers in the coming apocalypse.”

The flagship of the US Navy
The biggest and most technologically advanced warship in service in the world, the USS Gerald R. Ford is no stranger to Souda, having last moored there on 26th December 2023. The nuclear powered aircraft carrier took its name from the 38th US President Gerald R. Ford, who served in the US Navy during the 2nd World War. The ship entered service in 2017, replacing the older USS Enterprise, and as of 2026 it is considered the biggest and most powerful aircraft carrier ever to have been built.

With a length of 337 metres and a displacement of 100,000 tons, the Gerald R. Ford is bigger than the previous Nimitz class aircraft carriers, carrying a full complement of 75 aircraft. The nuclear propulsion system enables it to sail at a speed of over 30 knots (55 km/h) and to stay at sea for very long periods without refuelling, offering great operational autonomy. In essence a ship of this kind operates as a floating aeronautical and military hub, the ability of aircraft such as the F/A-18 Super Hornet and F-35C to take off from and land directly on the deck offering the American military leadership the capacity to react quickly to critical situations in any part of the world.

On course for the Middle East
As reported on Skai.gr, on leaving Souda the aircraft carrier will need about a day to reach Israel and to join the defensive array of the Americans and Tel Aviv. According to the report, “the possibility of a US attack on Iran within 10 days is now the top item on the global agenda, with analysts theorising that the warnings of Donald Trump are a real and actual indication of his intentions.

“At all events, the concentration of American forces in the area is so great that few people now hope that the impending hostilities can be headed off by diplomacy. Greece is included in this agenda, since its geopolitical situation is such that it cannot be ignored, especially from the moment where it is an allied power of the USA.”
(Haniotika Nea, 21/02/26, www.skai.gr)

Movements of the aircraft carrier
The Gerald R. Ford has crossed the Atlantic, having being formerly deployed to the Caribbean to take part in the operations against Venezuela. It was seen transiting the Straits of Gibraltar at around 1.00 pm local time on Friday 20th February and is expected in Souda some time on Sunday 22nd February. Ex-Royal Navy officer Tom Sharpe writing in The Telegraph suggested that it would take the aircraft carrier several days to reach the Eastern Mediterranean along with its destroyer escorts:

“She will probably continue east at around 18 knots: on her own she could go much faster but her escorts would burn fuel very fast keeping up with her. There’s also some nasty weather and big waves in the western Med at the moment. If the escorts have to punch into that at speed they will break kit and people. Leaving the escorts behind isn’t likely when heading into a potential shooting war – they provide vital protection for the carrier.” In fact, arriving on Sunday it will have covered 2,500 km in some 48 hours, suggesting a speed of 50 km/h, somewhere near the ship’s maximum – no doubt the US leadership considered that the situation in the Middle East justified a degree of urgency,

According to the military news site The War Zone (www.twz.com) the Gerald R. Ford left the US naval base at Norfolk, Virginia, last June for the Mediterranean, but was later dispatched to the Caribbean in October by President Donald Trump to take part in the mission that ultimately resulted in the capture of the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. In January the US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle expressed concern about the ship’s extended deployment, which could result in major repercussions on maintenance schedules and strain on the crew.

That being the case, the four-day respite at Souda will no doubt be a welcome break. The period coincides with the holiday of Kathara Deftera (Clean Monday) on 23rd February, and as reported in Haniotika Nea, there have been negotiations with local business owners to make sure that crew members venturing into the city centre do not find everything closed.

Following that, the ship will need another day to cover the 1,000-odd km to the coast of Israel, to bolster the US naval forces, currently concentrated in the Arabian Sea, so it will not be in position until the end of the coming week. ( www.twz.com)

Upgrading the NATO base at Souda

Extensive discussions are taking place between Athens and Washington on the modernisation of the facilities used by the US Armed Forces at Souda, as part of changes expected to be implemented in the Mutual Defence Cooperation Agreement between the US and Greece. According to a report in Kathimerini, discussions are under way on the modernisation both of the naval installations at Marathi and the facilities at the adjacent air base (115th Combat Wing). In the five-year period 2021-26, the US Defense Department budget provides for expenditure at the sites of around $42 million.

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US aircraft carrier returns to Souda

Increased police presence was expected in Chania this week in anticipation of the arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford at the Souda naval base for the second time in a month. On the morning of Tuesday 26th December, the US’s biggest aircraft carrier berthed with the help of tugs at quay K14 at Marathi, where it is due to stay until 30th December. Increased police patrols are in force for the days when members of the ship’s 6,000 strong complement of crew and airmen are expected to be visiting the city of the Chania and the Venetian harbour. Ploumidaki Street, which runs between the Municipal Kypos and the Park of Peace and Friendship, is closed to traffic this week to accommodate the buses carrying the visitors.

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Two aircraft carriers at Souda

The sighting of a group of casually dressed young men and women, speaking French and enjoying a meal in the Apostolis restaurant on the old harbour in Chania, was a clue that the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle was visiting the NATO naval base at Marathi last weekend. Tied up at dock K14, which was recently enlarged and is claimed to be the only dock in the Mediterranean which can accommodate a nuclear aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle is the flagship of the French fleet and the only non-US nuclear carrier currently in operation.

Completed in the year 2000 at a cost of €3 billion, the carrier is 261.5 m long, 64.36 m wide and has a maximum speed of 27 knots (50km/h). It has a complement of 1,350 crew and can carry 30 Rafale fighter jets plus assorted reconnaissance aircraft and helicopters, which are flown and serviced by an additional 600 personnel. It can also transport 800 marines and 5,000 tonnes of ammunition.

The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle

The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which was docked at the NATO naval base at Marathi over the weekend. Photo: http://www.seaforces.org


Also at Souda over the weekend was the Spanish amphibious assault ship/aircraft carrier Juan Carlos I, a (slightly) smaller, conventionally powered vessel of 230.82 m length and 32 m beam, which was moored at the cruise ship dock on the other side of the bay. Commissioned in 2010 at a final cost of €462 million, the Juan Carlos is driven by a combination of diesel-electric and gas turbine power and has a maximum speed of 21 knots (39 km/h). The complement of the ship is around 900 naval personnel, with equipment and support elements for 1,200 soldiers. Like many modern aircraft carriers, it has a “ski-jump” ramp at the bow for V/STOL (vertical or short take-off and landing) aircraft such as the second-generation Harrier and the F35. The ship can carry 30 helicopters or a mix of V/STOL Harriers and rotary wing aircraft. A derivation of the Juan Carlos’s design, constructed at the Sedef shipyard in Istanbul and expected to be commissioned in 2023, is the TCG Anadolou, the Turkish Navy’s first aircraft carrier.

Also at the naval base at Marathi were the 230 m troop-carrying ship and floating base USS Hershel “Woody” Williams, which is a regular visitor to Souda, as well as the Greek frigates Adrias and Psara.

The vessels are taking part in the Antares Mission, a NATO joint exercise which began in November and is basically a show of strength in the Mediterranean in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine. It currently involves five different aircraft carriers plus assorted support ships. Taking part in addition to the French and Spanish carriers are the US Navy’s USS George HW Bush (recently moored off Piraeus), the Italian Cavour, and the UK’s HMS Queen Elizabeth, the latter replacing its newly-commissioned sister ship HMS Prince of Wales, which was withdrawn from service in August 2022 following a failure of one of its propeller shafts and is expected to return to service in the spring of this year.

The strong NATO presence in the Eastern Mediterranean, and particularly at Souda, has aroused vocal opposition from Greek anti-war elements. On Friday afternoon the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) organised a demonstration in front of the Agora in Chania, handing out leaflets to passers-by and shouting slogans against war, against imperialism and against NATO.

KKE demonstrators at the Agora on the evening of Friday 17th February handed out leaflets and shouted slogans against war and NATO “imperialism”. Photo: Haniotika Nea.

In a statement to the press, KKE Secretary Spiros Agrimakis said that the demonstration was being held “to declare our steadfast opposition to the mooring of NATO ships on the responsibility of the government, which is involving us ever more closely in the war in Ukraine, to conflict and to plans for war in the Southeast Mediterranean. Souda is hosting military equipment and toxic waste, vast expansion works are under way at the base, which is an important centre for NATO’s imperialist interventions in the region. It is unacceptable for our people to be targeted by the adversaries of the US (Russia and China), and for us to be embroiled in ever greater dangers.”
(Haniotika Nea, 18th February 2023)