Tag Archives: US aircraft carrier

The aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford is returning to Souda

Having left Crete less than a month ago, the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is returning to Souda from deployment in the Red Sea with its three destroyer escorts – the USS Bainbridge, USS Mahan and USS Winston S. Churchill. Apart from the opportunity to resupply after a period of intensive operation, the carrier needs repairs following a major fire which broke out last week in one of its laundry units and burned for 30 hours before being extinguished.

The aircraft carrier steams towards camera, its deck covered in fighter jets, against a blue horizon.
The USS Gerald R. Ford carrying out exercises in the Atlantic in April 2022, prior to operational deployment. Six hundred of the 100,000-ton carrier’s crew of 4,500 lost their beds in a fire in a laundry unit which broke out on 12th March 2026, while 200 crew members were treated for smoke inhalation. Photo: US Navy.

The story was first reported on 16th March by the New York Times, which stated that the fire started in the aft laundry area on Thursday 12th March and, by the time it was over, more than 600 crew members had lost their beds and were having to sleep on tables and on the floor.

The NYT reported the U.S. military’s Central Command as saying that two sailors received treatment for “non-life-threatening injuries”. People on the ship reported that dozens of service members suffered smoke inhalation. Moreover as a result of the fire many sailors have been unable to do laundry.

The fire, which began in a drier vent, is likely to have been caused by poor maintenance, a result of the extended period the carrier has been at sea. The ship is now in its 10th month of deployment, having already been in the Mediterranean in October last year when it was ordered to head to the Caribbean to increase US pressure on Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, before his seizure. It then sailed back to the Mediterranean, leaving Souda a month ago for the Middle East.

If the current deployment is extended into May the Gerald. R. Ford will have been at sea for a whole year – twice the normal period of operation. Long deployments increase the stress on crew members who are separated from their families for long periods, while the ships’ operating systems are also placed under stress when normal maintenance intervals are missed. Quoted by the NYT, Rear Admiral John F. Kirby, a retired naval officer who was Pentagon press secretary and a national security spokesman in the Biden administration, said: “Ships get tired too, and they get beat up over the course of long deployments. You can’t run a ship that long and that hard and expect her and her crew to perform at peak capacity.”

The US Central Command has stated that there is “no damage to the ship’s propulsion plant, and the aircraft carrier remains fully operational.”

Replacements sought for destroyed bedding
One sailor was medically evacuated from the carrier after being injured in the damage control effort, while two others were treated for lacerations and 200 sailors were treated for smoke inhalation and returned to duty, according to sources quoted by the USNI (US Naval Institute) News website on 17th March.

According to the same source, 1,000 mattresses were being taken from the USS John F. Kennedy, the US Navy’s second Gerald R. Ford class aircraft carrier, currently being fitted out at Newport News, Virginia. In addition the Navy has also collected almost 2,000 sweatsuits and other clothing items to distribute to the crew who were unable to clean their clothes following the accident, while replacements are being sought for more than 100 beds destroyed in the fire.

The Gerald R. Ford is expected in the coming week at Souda, where it will stay for a week for repairs. There has been no statement as to whether it will return to its position in the Red Sea. However, again according to the NYT, the USS George H.W. Bush, which is preparing to deploy to the Middle East, will probably relieve the Gerald R. Ford when it arrives.
(New York Times, 16/03/26, News.usnoi.org, 17/03/26)

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)