【By Observer News, Shanmao】

According to the US "The War Zone" website, the US Navy's CVN-78 "Gerald R. Ford" aircraft carrier (hereinafter referred to as the "Ford") has officially joined the so-called "strengthened anti-drug" mission under the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM). In a statement from the public affairs department of the "Ford" carrier posted by the US Southern Command on Tuesday this week (November 11), it was confirmed that the carrier strike group led by the "Ford" entered the command's operational area on the same day.

(Photo) The first ship of the US Navy's Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, CVN-78 "Gerald R. Ford"

Southern Command is one of the 11 operational commands of the United States (among which there are 7 regional commands divided by global regions and space, as well as 4 global functional commands). Its operational area includes most of Latin America outside Mexico and the entire South America, covering a vast area from east of 24°W to west of 92°W, north to the Florida Strait and south to the Antarctic coast. Venezuela, which the Trump administration accused of establishing drug trafficking groups, is located within this operational area.

Map of the operational area of the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) (in red box) US Southern Command official website

On the 24th of last month, President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of an aircraft carrier fleet to the Caribbean Sea, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth immediately instructed the "Ford" strike group and its carrier air wing to proceed to the Southern Command area. At that time, the ship was deployed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea as part of the US forces in the Middle East. The previous reports estimated that it would take at least a week for the carrier to cross the entire Mediterranean and Atlantic to reach South America. However, the "Ford" actually crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic on the 4th of this month, and then stayed for several days along the coast of North Africa, thus taking longer than expected.

The "Ford" carrier conducting operations near North Africa on the east coast of the Atlantic before entering the operational area of the Southern Command US Navy

Currently, the "Ford" carries four F/A-18E/F Super Hornet attack fighter squadrons, one E/A-18G Growler electronic warfare squadron, one E-2D Advanced Hawkeye early warning aircraft squadron, one MH-60 Seahawk helicopter squadron, and a C-2 carrier onboard delivery aircraft squadron, and is expected to bring a large amount of additional combat power to the Southern Command. The Southern Command did not reveal the specific location of the carrier group in its statement, and "The War Zone" website asked for more details, but there has been no response so far.

However, some open-source intelligence trackers and organizations on social media have already tracked some "traces". For example, based on publicly available Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, the "Burlingame" DDG-96, an Arleigh Burke-class missile destroyer, was located about 800 nautical miles northeast of Trinidad and Tobago. This ship belongs to the 2nd Destroyer Squadron and is one of the ships assigned to the "Ford" strike group. Other ships assigned to the "Ford" group include DDG-72 "Mahan", and the DDG-81 "Winston S. Churchill" configured as an integrated air defense missile command ship, in addition to the DDG-98 "Forrest Sherman" and DDG-57 "Mitchell" still performing missions in the Red Sea.

AIS information shows that the "Burlingame" DDG-96, a ship belonging to the "Ford" carrier strike group, was located about 800 nautical miles northeast of Trinidad and Tobago on the local time of November 11 Social media

Since August this year, the Trump administration has repeatedly mobilized US military forces to the Caribbean Sea under the pretext of "cracking down on illegal drug trafficking". Before the "Ford" carrier group, the US had already dispatched a large force including several destroyers and cruisers, an amphibious readiness group containing two amphibious assault ships and dock landing ships, F-35B stealth fighters, a special operations mother ship and special operations aircraft, MQ-9 "Reaper" drones and AC-130 gunships, with a total force of over 10,000 troops. During this period, the US Air Force also sent B-52 and B-1B strategic bombers to patrol the skies near Venezuela. The US military is still conducting battlefield reconnaissance to determine whether to continue deploying more military forces. According to the US side's claim, the current military operations in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific are "limited to striking vessels suspected of drug trafficking". So far, approximately 20 strike operations have been carried out, resulting in more than 70 deaths, most of which were conducted by MQ-9 and AC-130.

On the other hand, due to the departure of the "Ford", the US Navy has once again experienced a large-scale "aircraft carrier vacuum" in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean areas from Europe to the Strait of Malacca. And the number of航母 forces currently active globally is still not very high. According to the situation map updated by the "Fleet and Maritime Tracking" channel on the US Naval Institute News (USNI News) on the 10th of this month, the only aircraft carriers currently active at sea are the CVN-68 "Nimitz" in the southern South China Sea, the CVN-73 "George Washington" which just finished visiting Busan, South Korea and is sailing in the East China Sea, the CVN-78 "Ford" sailing in the Atlantic, and the CVN-77 "George H.W. Bush" which just left Norfolk on the 3rd of this month.

The dynamic map of the "Fleet and Maritime Tracking" on the 10th showed a large-scale "aircraft carrier vacuum" in the European, Middle Eastern, and Indian Ocean regions of the US Navy US Naval Institute News (USNI News)

This article is an exclusive article by Observer News. Without permission, it cannot be reprinted.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7571767830639542818/

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