Aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford enters Red Sea after repairs in Croatian port

MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/. The US aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which participated in operations in Venezuela and Iran, passed through the Suez Canal and entered the Red Sea following repairs, USNI News, a portal of the US Naval Institute, reported, citing Pentagon sources. According to the report, the ship left the Eastern Mediterranean late last week. The destroyers USS Mahan and USS Winston S. Churchill also joined the group in the Red Sea. On March 12, the US Navy’s Central Command reported a fire on board the USS Gerald R. Ford, which was then in the Red Sea. The ship was later diverted to the Greek island of Crete and arrived at the port of Split on Croatia’s Adriatic coast in late March for maintenance. According to USNI News, it departed from there on April 2. Currently, the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and a force led by the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli are operating in the Arabian Sea, participating in the naval blockade of Iran. An aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS George H. W. Bush is also heading toward the region; it is taking a longer route around southern Africa and has currently passed Madagascar. The news portal noted that no US aircraft carrier has passed through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait since December 2023. The strait had previously been a focal point of Houthi activity during their drone attacks.