Donald Trump has ordered the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean in a major escalation in his war on narco-terrorists from Venezuela.
The USS Gerald R. Ford is joining the deployment of US Southern Command, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on Friday.
The $20 billion, 1,090-ft vessel — which can carry more than 75 warplanes — moves as part of a carrier strike group that includes a cruiser, three destroyers and nine aircraft squadrons.
It ‘will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle’ the cartels, Parnell said in a statement.
The 100,000-ton warship joins the largest American force deployed to the Caribbean since the Cold War, including nuclear submarines, F-35 fighter jets, MQ-9 Reaper drones, P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance planes, and B-52 bombers.
The extraordinary deployment comes after Trump’s declaration that America is now in a ‘state of armed conflict’ with cartel forces, giving his commanders sweeping latitude to hunt traffickers beyond US waters.
The Pentagon has established a new joint task force under US Southern Command, despite Democratic lawmakers warning the president is going rogue and drifting towards a secretive conflict on foreign soil.
Earlier on Friday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced another strike on a narco-terrorist boat in the region, killing six alleged drug smugglers.