The USS Gerald R. Ford, the US Navy's largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, left a NATO naval base in Crete on Thursday and is heading toward the eastern Mediterranean, with officials expecting it to arrive off Israel's coast within 24 hours.
The deployment comes amid heightened tensions with the Islamic Republic of Iran and ahead of what has been described as a pivotal meeting in Geneva between US representatives and envoys of the Iranian regime.
The nuclear-powered carrier spent four days at the US Naval Support Activity Souda Bay base in Crete, where its nearly 4,600 crew members took on supplies and equipment before setting sail toward the Middle East.
The Ford is expected to join the USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying strike group, which arrived in the region last month as part of a broader US military buildup against Iran.
Commissioned in 2017, the 334-meter-long vessel (about 1,096 feet) has a displacement of more than 100,000 tons and carries a crew of close to 4,600 sailors. According to a report by US National Public Radio, the ship has recently experienced technical problems with its onboard sewage system.
