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After eight months of deployment, the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford is resuming operations and returning home from the eastern Mediterranean, where it has been taking off since October in the wake of rising tensions in the region amid the war between Israel and Hamas.
In a statement Monday, the Italy-based U.S. 6th Fleet said the flatship and its strike group would return to Norfolk, Virginia, in the “coming days.”
The amphibious assault ship Bataan, the amphibious transport ship Mesa Verde, and the landing ship Carter Hall are scheduled to fill out the carrier's presence in the region, according to the 6th Fleet.
The Norfolk-based aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower was scheduled to replace the Ford in the Mediterranean, but the war between Israel and Hamas and regional instability prompted the Pentagon to send the carrier strike group Ike to US Central Command's Middle East waters last fall.
Mesa Verde carries approximately 2,000 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. These Marines provide “forces capable of supporting a wide range of missions,” Sixth Fleet said.
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Carter Hall is a landing ship that carries amphibious landing craft and their crews. Both ships and Bataan can support rotary aircraft. The Bataan can also carry and support the Marine Corps' F-35B vertical take-off fighter aircraft.
“The Department of Defense will continue to leverage its collective force position in the region to deter any state or non-state actor from escalating this crisis outside of Gaza,” the Sixth Fleet said.
The Ford embarked on her first full deployment in May, along with her strike group including the destroyers Carney, Ramage, McFaul and Thomas Hudner.
Ramage has already returned to the United States to provide scheduled maintenance.
The Ford has been heading to the eastern Mediterranean to be within striking distance of Israel since the day after the Hamas attacks on October 7. The carrier remained in the eastern Mediterranean while its accompanying warships sailed to the Red Sea, where they repeatedly intercepted incoming ballistic missiles and attack drones launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen.
In recent months, the Pentagon has extended Ford's deployment three times in the eastern Mediterranean, and the Ford and Ike planes were part of the presence of two aircraft carriers in the war between Israel and Hamas, underscoring US fears of a widening conflict.
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The destroyers Gravely, Labon and Mason from the carrier strike group Eisenhower have dropped drones and missiles in recent weeks and provided assistance to commercial ships in the area under attack by the Houthis.
In one case, Laboon shot down 12 one-way attack drones, three anti-ship ballistic missiles, and two land-attack cruise missiles in the Red Sea on December 26, and Karni shot down 14 attack drones in the Red Sea on December 26. December 16.
On Sunday, Navy helicopters from the destroyer Eisenhower and the destroyer Gravely shot down three small boats of the Iranian-backed Houthis, after the small boats attacked the helicopters and another commercial ship in the Red Sea.
US Central Command said in a statement in December that the United States “has every reason to believe that these attacks, although launched by the Houthis in Yemen, were entirely enabled by Iran.” As a result, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced on December 18 the creation of a multinational task force to help protect civilian ships transiting the economically vital Red Sea.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
