This article**[Global Times New**].
On December 31, 2023 local time, ABC published an exclusive report that the US Navy's USS Ford aircraft carrier strike group will be withdrawn from the eastern Mediterranean in the coming days after several weeks of extended deployment.
According to the report, two U.S. ** revealed to the ABC the future deployment plan of the USS Ford aircraft carrier strike group. They said that in the coming days, the USS Ford and other surface ships of the strike group will return to Norfolk Naval Port, the home port of the USS Ford, as originally planned, in order to prepare for future deployment operations. The United States stressed that the return of the USS Ford will adhere to the timetable and that even if the USS Ford carrier strike group leaves the eastern Mediterranean, the United States will still have a strong military capability in the Middle East, including additional cruisers and destroyers in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
The USS Ford, the U.S. Navy's newest and largest aircraft carrier, was redeployed to the eastern Mediterranean a day after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when its first operational deployment mission was nearing completion, the report said. In December 2023, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin extended the deployment of the USS Ford aircraft carrier for the third time to maintain deterrence amid high tensions in the Middle East.
According to reports, the US Navy's USS Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group was originally ordered to stay in the eastern Mediterranean to rendezvous with the USS Ford Carrier Strike Group, but soon after it was ordered to go to the Gulf region to deter Iran. At present, the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier strike group is deployed in the waters of the Gulf of Aden.