USS Gerald R. Ford Breaks Post-Cold War Deployment Record

The crew of USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) are now the record holders for the longest carrier deployment since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

On Wednesday, Ford’s deployment hit the 295-day record previously set by USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic during its Middle East deployment and homeport shift from the East Coast to San Diego, Calif.

Ford, currently in the Eastern Mediterranean, left June 24, 2025, from Naval Station Norfolk, Va., for Europe before being shifted in October to the Caribbean Sea as part of the wider Pentagon naval presence ahead of the military operation to capture former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Then in February, Ford was tasked to the Middle East and eventually the Red Sea. While in CENTCOM, a fire in the ship’s laundry forced the carrier back to the Mediterranean Sea for repairs.

The extended deployment is set to last until May and could rival Vietnam-era deployments based on testimony from Navy leaders earlier this year.

“That extension will ultimately be about an 11-month deployment,” Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby told the Senate Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on readiness and management support in early March.

The USNI News carrier database records how long a fully certified carrier strike group is deployed for national tasking as a measure of U.S. combat power. It does not include training underways or quarantine periods, as in the case of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2020-21, the crew of USS Nimitz (CVN-68) was on duty and away from home for 341 days, including extended isolation periods ashore to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Since 1964, the longest deployment for national tasking was 332 days, a record held by the former USS Midway (CVA-41) operating in the Gulf of Tonkin from 1972 through 1973 in support of U.S. operations during the Vietnam War, according to the USNI News carrier database.

Ford’s almost yearlong extension continues a trend of East Coast carrier deployments that consistently go beyond the seven-month deployment phase of the Navy’s optimized fleet response plan.

The last six deployments from Naval Station Norfolk, Va., have averaged just under nine months with U.S. carriers operating in the Mediterranean as a deterrence to Russian aggression following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, then in defense of commercial ships being attacked by Yemen-based Houthi forces following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Southern Israel, and now the conflict with Iran. Norfolk carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) is currently underway off the coast of Africa, set to join naval forces in the Arabian Sea, USNI News reported on Monday.

The extension of Ford to support SOUTHCOM and then operations in the Middle East has also raised concerns of maintenance schedules at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Va. Last week, Virginia senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine sent letters to Secretary of the Navy John Phelan requesting information on how the extended deployment would affect repair work at the shipyard.

Earlier this year, Kilby told the Senate panel the Navy was adjusting the schedule to meet the needs of the extended deployment.

“There’ll be an impact on her return and the schedule for her maintenance availability so she’s ready to go again,” he said. “The good part about our public shipyards is they’re adjusting that schedule. They’re ready to bring our carrier back and maintain her.”

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) is in the midst of an availability at the shipyard after completing a 2024 deployment, while USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) is undergoing repair work at Naval Station Norfolk ahead of its own availability. Both carriers’ most recent deployments were almost nine months. It’s unclear whether the fire Ford suffered will extend the carrier’s availability.