The U.S. Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is being redirected from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East, amid escalating tensions with Iran.
The USS Gerald R. Ford will join USS Abraham Lincoln, which is already deployed in the region. The redeployment marks a rapid shift for the Ford, which departed its home port in Norfolk, Virginia, on June 24, 2025, initially for operations in European waters.
It was later deployed to the Caribbean in October as part of U.S. military operations against Venezuela, where the American soldiers “extracted” serving President Nicolás Maduro from the highly fortified capital city of Caracas.
Now the 100,000-ton nuclear-powered carrier’s new assignment will require a third transit of the Atlantic. Crew members were informed of the change on Thursday, officials said.
The Ford is not expected to return to Norfolk until late April or early May, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements.
The embarked squadrons aboard Gerald R. Ford include Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 31, VFA 37, and VFA 87, flying the F/A-18E Super Hornet; VFA 213, flying the F/A-18F Super Hornet; Electronic Attack Squadron 142, flying the E/A-18G Growler; Airborne Command and Control Squadron 124, flying the airborne command and control E-2D Advanced Hawkeye; Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 9, flying the MH-60S Seahawk; Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 70, flying the MH-60R Seahawk; and a detachment from Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 40, flying the Carrier Onboard Delivery C-2A Greyhound.
The EA-18G Growlers will be one of the most vital assets for the U.S. Navy against Iran, offering specialised electronic warfare and suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD) capabilities. The Lincoln CSG also fields the Growlers.
EA-18G Growler
The Growler is a carrier-based electronic warfare (EW) aircraft, a specialized version of the combat-proven two-seat Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet. It provides tactical jamming and electronic protection to U.S. military forces and allies worldwide.
The EA-18G Growler is the U.S. Navy’s replacement for the EA-6B Prowler. The Growler shares more than 90% of its characteristics with the standard Super Hornet. Around 170 aircraft have been built to date.
The EA-18G replaced the Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowlers in service with the USN. The EA-18G began production in 2007 and entered operational service with the USN in late 2009.
The EA-18G Growler is considered among the most advanced airborne electronic attack (AEA) platforms and is the only one still in production today. Industry and the USN continue to invest in advanced Growler capabilities to ensure it continues to protect all strike aircraft during high-threat missions for decades to come.
The Growler brings fighter aircraft speed and maneuverability to an electronic attack aircraft. It also provides critical electronic intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) data to other joint force aircraft.
The Growler’s ability to self-protect against adversarial aircraft includes using its two AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), enhanced radar image resolution, targeting and tracking range through its APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar system, uninterrupted radio communications in a heavily jammed environment using its INCANS Interference Cancellation System, unequaled aircrew situational awareness and head-up control of aircraft targeting systems and sensors using its Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing Systema, and its ability to locate, record, playback and digitally jam enemy communications over a broad frequency range using its ALQ-227 Communications Countermeasures Set.
It provides advanced survivability and electronic protection for ground, air, and maritime combat forces with high reliability and lower operating costs. Two crew members are required to take on a much higher workload in the cockpit.
The aircraft has AN/ALQ-218 wideband receivers on the wingtips and ALQ-99 high and low-band tactical jamming pods. The two combined form a full-spectrum electronic warfare suite capable of detecting and jamming all known surface-to-air threats.
The Growler is the initial platform for the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ), which uses Active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology to focus jamming power exactly where needed. The NGJ was to be implemented on the F-35.
Three Growlers networked together can generate targeting tracks for hostile radio-frequency sources in real-time. Using faster data links, the Growler could use its EW pods to accurately locate signal sources.
In a group of three planes, when one detects a signal from a source such as a cell phone, the other two can also listen for the same signal. All three measure the time it takes for transmissions to travel from the source to each aircraft, enabling triangulation to “a very, very small area.”
The USN has demonstrated this concept using EA-18s equipped with Rockwell Collins’ tactical targeting network technology (TTNT) and ALQ-218 receivers to acquire emissions from a target vessel and target it from a standoff range without using their own detectable radar emissions. The USN is also adding an FLIR pod.
Recently, the Growlers played a key role in Operation Absolute Resolve during the January 2026 intervention in Venezuela.
Deployed from the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group, the Growlers provided crucial suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) by jamming Venezuelan radar systems, disrupting military communications, and degrading integrated air-defense networks, including Russian-origin Buk-M2E systems.
This non-kinetic electronic attack created safe corridors for U.S. special operations choppers and attack helicopters to conduct a daring raid into Caracas.
Operating alongside Super Hornets, F-35s, F-22s, and other assets in a force of over 150 warplanes, the Growlers once again demonstrated the importance of Electronic Warfare attacks.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that a change of government in Iran would be the “best thing that could happen.”
Trump’s comments were his most overt call yet for the toppling of Iran’s clerical establishment, and came as he pushes on Washington’s arch-foe Tehran to make a deal to limit its nuclear program.
“Seems like that would be the best thing that could happen,” Trump told reporters at the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina when a journalist asked if he wanted “regime change” in Iran.
Trump declined to say who he would want to take over in Iran from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but he added, “There are people.”
While Trump has previously retreated from explicit calls for regime change in Iran, cautioning that such a move could unleash chaos in the region, he has nonetheless issued direct threats against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the past.
Speaking earlier at the White House, Trump said that the USS Gerald R. Ford — the world’s largest warship — would be “leaving very soon” for the Middle East to up the pressure on Iran.
“In case we don’t make a deal, we’ll need it,” Trump said.
