11 US warships, 15K troops now in Caribbean amid escalating Venezuela tensions
A major US naval and military buildup is under way in the Caribbean. via REUTERS
More than 10 U.S. warships, including the nation’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, are moving into the Caribbean amid rising tensions between President Trump and Venezuela.
A Marine Expeditionary Unit, capable of carrying out an amphibious land invasion, has also been deployed as part of efforts to curb the flow of illegal drugs from the socialist nation into the United States.
“The military’s job is to defend the homeland,” Secretary of the Navy John Phelan told Fox News Saturday night. “That’s exactly what we’re doing, and we’re using our best assets to do it. Drugs kill more Americans than we’ve ever lost in wars. The president has correctly identified this as an attack on the country—and it is.”
Venezuela’s socialist leader, Nicolas Maduro, has been accused of allowing drug shipments to leave his country en route to the U.S.
Among the 11 warships now in the Caribbean is the USS Gerald R. Ford, which carries the Carrier Strike Group and nine carrier air wings, totaling more than 70 aircraft from squadrons in Virginia, Florida, and Washington state. Other ships in the region include the USS Iwo Jima, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship capable of carrying six Harrier II attack aircraft.
Guided-missile destroyers USS Gravely and USS Stockdale are also operating in the area, along with larger guided-missile cruisers USS Lake Erie and USS Gettysburg.
Approximately 2,200 Marines from Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station New River in North Carolina are stationed in the Caribbean. Overall, around 15,000 U.S. troops—including Marines aboard ships and roughly 5,000 personnel at bases in Puerto Rico—are now in the region, according to The Conversation.
The Roosevelt Roads naval base in Puerto Rico has been reopened as part of the military buildup. This surge in force is part of President Trump’s “Operation Southern Spear,” aimed at controlling the flow of deadly narcotics into the U.S., with support from the Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security.
The deployment coincides with broader efforts to modernize the U.S. military with AI, unmanned systems, and hypersonic missiles, as well as Trump’s push to revive American shipbuilding jobs.
“The president is very focused on shipbuilding. He has been on me about it for a long time and continues to stay after me, which is great, because he’s committed and it’s really important,” Phelan said on My View with Lara Trump.
“We hollowed out our manufacturing base. It’s crucial we relearn how to make things. We spent the last decade teaching people to code; the next decade, we’re going to focus on hands-on skills, because those will be the important skills moving forward,” he added.
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