Where Are The Carriers As Of May 3, 2026: Ford Finally Heads Home

Here’s TWZ’s weekly carrier tracker monitoring America’s flattop fleet, including deployed Carrier Strike Groups (CSGs) and Amphibious Ready Groups (ARGs), using publicly available open-source information. Check out last week’s map here.

The historic deployment of the Gerald R. Ford CSG appears to be winding down, finally. The strike group – now deployed for a record-setting 314 days – transited the Suez Canal northbound on May 1 and has reportedly begun the journey back home to Norfolk, according to the Washington Post. However, CENTCOM still has two CSGs under its command, led by USS Abraham Lincoln and USS George H.W. Bush, positioned in the Arabian Sea together for the first time since the conflict kicked off. The second carrier provides additional flexibility to enforce the blockade, support the just-announced ‘Project Freedom’ mission to get commercial vessels out of the Persian Gulf, and, should combat operations resume, strike Iran with double the firepower.

“U.S. military support to Project Freedom will include guided-missile destroyers, over 100 land and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain unmanned platforms, and 15,000 service members,” CENTCOM stated in a release on Sunday. But reporting from the Wall Street Journal claims the plan “doesn’t currently involve U.S. Navy warships escorting vessels through the strait,” and the mechanics of the mission remain unclear. Also of note, Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM’s Commander based in Florida, visited troops over the weekend.

Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, visited USS Milius (DDG 69), May 2, as the guided-missile destroyer patrolled regional waters in support of the U.S. blockade operations against Iran. While on board, he interacted with Sailors and addressed them on the 1MC while highlighting… pic.twitter.com/2qTmMmfY05