The U.S. aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, deployed in operations against Iran, is expected to temporarily pull into port after a fire on board, U.S. officials said on Tuesday, the 18th day ‌of the war with Tehran.

The carrier, America’s newest and the world’s largest, is currently located in the Red Sea. It is expected to temporarily go to Souda Bay on the Greek island of Crete, the two officials said.

The warship has been deployed for nine months, including taking part in operations against Venezuela in the Caribbean ⁠prior to arriving in the Middle East. The length of the deployment has raised questions about morale of the sailors on board and the readiness of the warship.

  • Gsus4@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    26
    ·
    edit-2
    9 days ago

    Sooo…Iranian drone…or disgruntled sailors/smoking accident/old less maintained ship?

    • magnetosphere@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      38
      ·
      9 days ago

      I’ll bet on poor morale, which led to an accident. You’d have to be out of your mind to want the ship you’re trapped on to catch fire.

      • FaceDeer@fedia.io
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        14
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 days ago

        I could imagine someone thinking a small fire might be safer than the ship carrying on to Hormuz.

        • gnutrino@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          9 days ago

          Nobody is running a carrier through Hormuz and no one aboard would think they might be heading there, that’s not how any of this works. Escort/freedom of navigation work would be done by destroyers or smaller vessels.

          • FaceDeer@fedia.io
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            10
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            9 days ago

            How many layers of “nobody would be stupid enough to…” deep are we into this situation at this point?

            • LincolnsDogFido@lemmy.zip
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              9 days ago

              Nobody would be stupid enough to suggest that the Trump administration is stupid enough to do all of these things.

    • theneverfox@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      9 days ago

      A lint fire. And honestly, I believe it - there’s been a pattern of maintenance issues and sloppiness causing problems this year

      • neidu3@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        9 days ago

        Plus she was supposed to be in port for scheduled maintenance ages ago, but then someone started moving carriers around to feed their ego. Deferred maintenance is never a good thing.

        • theneverfox@pawb.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          7 days ago

          For sure… Also creating an environment of distrust isn’t great for morale or performance

          Not to mention reenlistment rates are way down. Hard to overstate the importance of institutional knowledge

          • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            6 days ago

            they seem to have recovered somewhat in 2024, due to the top gun maverick movie, yes the militaryganda movie boosted enlistment, i dont know about re-enlisting though.

            • theneverfox@pawb.social
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              6 days ago

              It probably has a lot more to do with the job market, the military is always hiring. The poverty to grunt pipeline has basically always been a cornerstone of military recruitment

              And reenlistment rates have been consistently falling, especially with MAGA at the helm. Especially among more skilled roles…I mean it’s one thing to want to fly planes or be a tech when the US was untouchable, now planes are falling out of the sky

    • frongt@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 days ago

      She was laid down in 2009, so not very old. The Nimitz class dates to the 70s.

    • frongt@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 days ago

      Smoke inhalation is no joke.

      Scrambling around in firefighting gear on a ship (limited visibility and hearing from the hood and smoke, slippery from the water) leads to plenty of injury too.