The aircraft carriers, USS Gerald Ford and the USS George Bush, are now engaged in a regularly scheduled multination operation to showcase the cohesion and interoperability of participants, the US Department of Defense announced on Friday.
Sabrina Singh, the deputy Pentagon press secretary, told reporters that the two American carrier strike groups, their embarked air wings and escorts will be operating in the North Atlantic Ocean, North Sea and Mediterranean Sea along with the UK Royal Navy’s HMS Queen Elizabeth, Italian carrier ITS Cavour and the French FS Charles de Gaulle.
“These operations present an opportunity for allied nations to coordinate critical combat power throughout the Euro-Atlantic area while showcasing NATO cohesion and interoperability,” Singh explained, without directly referring to the altered security situation in Europe due to the Ukrainian-Russian war.
“It is also an opportunity to test allied cooperation and to practice NATO’s deter and defend concepts across all geographic areas, operational domains and functional areas of the alliance.”
