The USS Gerald R. Ford broke the U.S. record on Wednesday for the longest post-Vietnam War aircraft carrier deployment, reaching 295 days at sea and passing the previous mark set by the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2020. The carrier had left Naval Station Norfolk in Norfolk, Virginia, on June 23, 2025, and went on to serve in the Mediterranean Sea, the Caribbean Sea and the Red Sea.
The Ford’s deployment has stretched across some of the busiest flash points in recent U.S. military operations. It was rerouted to the Caribbean Sea in October 2025, took part in the military operation to capture then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and was later pulled into the opening days of the Iran war from the Mediterranean Sea before heading through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea in early March 2026. A fire in one of the ship’s laundry spaces then forced it back to the Mediterranean Sea for repairs and briefly left 600 sailors without places to sleep.
At 295 days, the Ford’s run is the longest deployment by a U.S. aircraft carrier since the Vietnam War era, but it still falls short of the Cold War record of 332 days set by the USS Midway in 1972 and 1973. The Pentagon has not said how long the Ford will remain deployed, even as Navy’s two highest-ranking officers have said publicly they expect the ship to be out for around 11 months.
The length of the deployment has drawn criticism from Sen. Tim Kaine, who said it places “a serious toll” on the sailors and argued, “They should be home with their loved ones, not sent around the world by a President who acts like the U.S. military is his palace guard.” Navy officials have not formally called the Ford’s stretch a record, but they have not disputed the data compiled by U.S. Naval Institute News, and another carrier, the USS George H. W. Bush, is already slated to head to the Middle East while it sits in the waters off Africa after deploying two weeks ago.
