U.S. to send aircraft carrier strike group to Caribbean in an escalation of boat strikes

Hegseth said that the U.S. struck a boat allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea, marking at least the third time this week that the U.S. has attacked a vessel it says was involved in drug trafficking.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed an aircraft carrier strike group to move to the Caribbean to support President Donald Trump’s effort to dismantle “Transnational Criminal Organizations” and to “counter narco-terrorism,” according to Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.

The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group and embarked carrier air wing are moving to the U.S. Southern Command's area of responsibility, Parnell said in a post on X.

Parnell said the enhanced military presence will “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere.”

The Gerald R. Ford is the U.S. Navy’s largest aircraft carrier and is currently stationed in the Mediterranean with three destroyers, according to two U.S. officials. They have not left that region, but once they do, the transit will take about one week to get on station in the Caribbean, the officials said.

The military’s deployment of the carrier strike group is a notable escalation of U.S. policy in the region as Trump has promised to target more cartel members and has firmly said these actions don't require congressional approval.