Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao speaks to Sailors aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), while underway in the Mediterranean Sea, May 4, 2026.
(U.S. Navy Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Mariano Lopez)
The United States Navy’s newest and largest nuclear-powered supercarrier transited the Strait of Gibraltar on Wednesday. The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is now operating in the Atlantic Ocean and could arrive at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., by the end of the month.
The ship spotting social media account @WarshipCam shared a photo on X of the USS Gerald R. Ford passing near the famed Rock of Gibraltar heading westbound. It is the fourth time during this deployment that the carrier has sailed through the strait that connects the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.
As of Wednesday, CVN-78 has been deployed for 316 days, the longest time at sea of any United States Navy aircraft carrier since the 332-day deployment of the conventionally-powered USS Midway (CV-41) during the Vietnam War.
USS Gerald R. Ford departed from Naval Station Norfolk on June 24, 2025, and in the past 10 and a half months has operated in the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the “High North Region” to take part in joint operations with NATO forces last fall, and then in the Mediterranean. It was a fairly “routine” deployment until October 2025, when Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the supercarrier to the Caribbean to support Operation Southern Spear, the ongoing drug interdiction campaign, which had also enforced a blockade of oil tankers connected to Venezuela.
The carrier was among the warships operating in U.S. Southern Command’s Area of Responsibility when the U.S. military carried out Operation Absolute Resolve, the mission that saw the successful capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, at their compound in Caracas in early January 2026.
It was also expected at the time that the USS Gerald R. Ford would return to Naval Station Norfolk, but in February, Hegseth ordered the aircraft carrier back to the Mediterranean and then to the Red Sea, where she has been a critical component of Operation Epic Fury, the aerial campaign directed at Iran.
Given that the USS Gerald R. Ford will have spent at least 11 months at sea, it is highly unlikely she’ll be deployed again until late 2027 or perhaps even early 2028.
Beyond the normal post-deployment maintenance that will need to be conducted on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, CVN-78 suffered a bit more “wear and tear.” That included a significant fire that broke out in one of the laundry rooms, which displaced hundreds of sailors.
USS Gerald R. Ford also has yet to receive the upgrades to fully operate with the Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II, the carrier-based variant of the fifth-generation stealth Joint Strike Fighter. The U.S. Navy may finally take the time to complete those updates, but that is likely to sideline the supercarrier for some time.
The crew may not mind after such a long deployment.
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