Pentagon shifts USS Ford to the Caribbean for narcotics strikes

The Pentagon announced Friday that it is redirecting the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility in the Caribbean, as the U.S. military intensifies a campaign of strikes on vessels it says are carrying narcotics. The move came hours after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. forces conducted their 10th overnight strike on a maritime vessel, killing six people and bringing the campaign's known death toll to at least 46.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell posted that the enhanced force presence will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor and disrupt illicit actors and activities in the Western Hemisphere. The Ford is the Navy's newest carrier and carries dozens of aircraft, including stealth fighters and surveillance platforms that, officials say, increase the military's ability to target maritime and, potentially, shore-based threats.

Hegseth said in a social media post that the latest struck vessel was operated by Tren de Aragua, a group the administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization. He described the campaign in language equating the traffickers to internationally proscribed terrorist...