{"id":488231,"date":"2026-02-24T20:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/488231\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:16:11","slug":"us-intercepts-tanker-in-indian-ocean-after-it-evaded-venezuela-blockade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/488231\/","title":{"rendered":"US intercepts tanker in Indian Ocean after it evaded Venezuela blockade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How unusual is USS Gerard R Ford\u2019s extended deployment?published at 16:09 GMT<\/p>\n<p>16:09 GMT<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-5adjh7-Contributor etflsgg2\">Thomas Copeland and Joshua Cheetham<br \/>BBC Verify<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Elsewhere the team has been tracking the build-up of US military assets in the Middle East, where the world\u2019s warship, USS Gerald R Ford, appears to be headed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The aircraft carrier, which docked at a US naval base in Souda Bay in Crete on Monday, has been continually deployed for the past eight months. A deployment of six to nine months is normal, says naval analyst Mike Plunkett at defense think-tank Janes, but \u201cwhat is unusual is that it has been extended twice and crossed the Atlantic three times\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"USS Gerard R Ford transiting the Strait of Gibraltar\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/49a3d120-c485-4612-800c-96ee1e539dc2.jpg.webp.webp\"  width=\"4096\" height=\"2673\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, David ParodyImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">USS Gerard R Ford transiting the Strait of Gibraltar<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cThe carrier was originally deployed to the Mediterranean before being sent to the Caribbean to support operations off Venezuela, and now back to the Mediterranean again to cover off any potential operations against Iran,\u201d Plunkett told us.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The warship left Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia on 24 June last year, a total of 244 days ago, and its recent deployment to the Middle East means it could be gone for more than 300 days before it returns home, Plunkett said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There have been reports of issues arising with the ship\u2019s plumbing system recently. Plunkett said among the issues that do arise during a long deployment is crew morale, however. \u201cThe crew will be suffering stress and fatigue,\u201d Plunkett said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How unusual is USS Gerard R Ford\u2019s extended deployment?published at 16:09 GMT 16:09 GMT Thomas Copeland and Joshua&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-488231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}