US sends aircraft carrier back to Virginia from Israel

The U.S. is sending a large aircraft carrier back home from the Middle East after the battleship was deployed for more than two months near Israel to deter a wider war from breaking out in the region.

The Navy’s 6th Fleet said Monday the USS Gerald R. Ford would return to its home port in Norfolk, Va., in the coming days.

The USS Eisenhower, another aircraft carrier, will remain in the eastern Mediterranean, along with other destroyer ships and battle cruisers, to continue the mission of deterring Iranian-backed actors from escalating the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

The U.S. presence there includes a Marines rapid response force, which consists of three ships and more than 2,000 troops.

“The Department of Defense continually evaluates force posture globally and will retain extensive capability both in the Mediterranean and across the Middle East,” the Navy’s 6th fleet said in a statement.

The USS Ford was sent to the eastern Mediterranean on Oct. 10, just three days after the Hamas attack on Israel. It was the first major deployment to the region following the war.

Troops spent the holidays on deployment, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited sailors ahead of Christmas and New Year’s when he traveled to the Middle East last month.

The Pentagon has said the deterrence efforts have been successful in preventing a wider war, as Israel continues to fight the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

While Israeli forces continue to trade fire over the border with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, a large-scale conflict has yet to erupt.

Other tensions are mounting across the Middle East, however, as Iranian-backed militants continue to attack U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.

In the Red Sea, the Iranian-backed Houthis have attacked merchant ships and over the weekend attempted another attack on a commercial vessel. The U.S., which built up a new maritime task force to deter the Houthis, sunk three Houthi boats in response.