Tipsheet

Three Carriers, One Message: Don’t Test the United States

Dmitri Bolt
Dmitri Bolt  |  June 24, 2025 1:30 PM

The USS Gerald Ford, the American Navy's most advanced aircraft carrier, will continue its scheduled deployment to the European theater of command, along with two other carrier strike groups, according to the Associated Press. Its deployment will have the carrier patrolling the water near Israel. The carrier strike group is comprised of multiple guided-missile destroyers and several squadrons of fighter jets. It is built to support a wider range of aircraft and requires several hundred fewer crew members than other U.S. aircraft carriers.

Currently, the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group is operating in the U.S. Central Command, and the USS Nimitz was redirected from the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East amidst ongoing tensions between Israel and Iran. This gives the President extensive leverage for the ongoing conflict, with a total of 3 carrier strike groups capable of responding to conflict in the Middle East.

Although President Trump announced an official ceasefire between Israel and Iran as of Monday night, tensions remain high in the region. On Tuesday morning, President Trump halted an Israeli bombing operation on Iran, a reaction to a fresh wave of Iranian missile attacks on Israel. As the President was questioned about the fragile ceasefire while he was boarding Marine One, he said, "We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing." An extra carrier in the region will give him greater leverage over both Israel and Iran.