FAR AND LONG

The USS Gerald R. Ford, the newest aircraft carrier in the United States Navy, set a new deployment-duration record this year, returning to Norfolk 326 days (11 months) after departing its home port. It was the longest deployment by a US aircraft carrier since the Vietnam War. Having operated successively in the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean (Absolute Resolve – the removal of Nicolás Maduro), and then the Indian Ocean for operations against Iran (Epic Fury), the vessel encountered, as is often the case during extended deployments, a number of technical failures and a gradual decline in crew morale. The situation became serious enough for US senators to question the Secretary of Defense regarding living conditions on board. Even the world’s most formidable naval power cannot indefinitely escape the constraints imposed by time and endurance.