The USS Ger­ald R. Ford Car­ri­er Strike Group has en­tered the Caribbean Sea to sup­port Unit­ed States op­er­a­tions aimed at dis­man­tling transna­tion­al crim­i­nal or­gan­i­sa­tions and coun­ter­ing nar­co-ter­ror­ism, the U.S. South­ern Com­mand (SOUTH­COM) con­firmed yes­ter­day.

SOUTH­COM said the de­ploy­ment fol­lows a di­rec­tive from Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump, with Sec­re­tary of War Pe­te Hegseth or­der­ing the car­ri­er group to re­in­force on­go­ing mar­itime op­er­a­tions in the re­gion.

Adm. Alvin Holsey, Com­man­der of SOUTH­COM, said the mis­sion is in­tend­ed to strength­en se­cu­ri­ty ef­forts across the West­ern Hemi­sphere.

“Through un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment and the pre­cise use of our forces, we stand ready to com­bat the transna­tion­al threats that seek to desta­bilise our re­gion,” Holsey said. “The USS Ger­ald R. Ford Car­ri­er Strike Group's de­ploy­ment rep­re­sents a crit­i­cal step in re­in­forc­ing our re­solve to pro­tect the se­cu­ri­ty of the West­ern Hemi­sphere and the safe­ty of the Amer­i­can Home­land.”

The Ford will op­er­ate along­side joint forces al­ready po­si­tioned in the Caribbean, in­clud­ing the Iwo Ji­ma Am­phibi­ous Ready Group and its em­barked ma­rine ex­pe­di­tionary unit. These as­sets form part of Joint Task Force South­ern Spear, which was es­tab­lished to tar­get and dis­man­tle crim­i­nal net­works op­er­at­ing across re­gion­al bor­ders and mar­itime cor­ri­dors.

Rear Adm. Paul Lanzilot­ta, com­man­der of Car­ri­er Strike Group 12, said the car­ri­er brings sig­nif­i­cant ad­di­tion­al ca­pac­i­ty to the mis­sion.

“Our na­tion’s lead­ers have called up­on the Ger­ald R. Ford Car­ri­er Strike Group as the most ca­pa­ble, adapt­able, and lethal plat­form in the world to be where it mat­ters, when it mat­ters,” Lanzilot­ta said. “Our force will aug­ment ex­ist­ing ca­pa­bil­i­ties to pro­tect our na­tion’s se­cu­ri­ty and pros­per­i­ty against nar­co-ter­ror­ism in the West­ern Hemi­sphere.”