SOUTHCOM Doesn’t Need a Carrier for Maritime Interdiction, CNO Says

For more than 100 days, the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group – the U.S. Navy’s premier platform – operated in the Caribbean after it was pulled from the Middle East late last year. USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), Carrier Air Wing 8 and escorts USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81), USS Bainbridge (DDG-96) and USS Mahan (DDG-72) were among the naval warships amassed in U.S. Southern Command for Operation Southern Spear as the Pentagon carried out kinetic strikes on boats suspected of trafficking narcotics. Now, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle is working on an “enduring naval package” to