Two U.S. sailors were treated for “non-life-threatening injuries” after a fire broke out Thursday on board the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, a centerpiece of Trump administration’s war against Iran, officials said.
The Navy acknowledged the incident in a statement, saying the fire occurred — and was contained — in the ship’s main laundry facility and was not a result of combat. The statement said the sailors are in stable condition; it did not specify the type of injuries they experienced.
“There is no damage to the ship’s propulsion plant, and the aircraft carrier remains fully operational,” the Navy statement said. The ship is currently in the Red Sea.
Thursday’s fire is the carrier’s second major setback while at sea during what has become a high-intensity extended deployment. The Ford also has experienced repeat plumbing issues.
In February the Navy acknowledged in a statement that the ship’s “vacuum collection, holding, and transfer” system — which supports approximately 650 toilets on board — was experiencing maintenance issues that would be addressed once it returns home to Norfolk.
The carrier and its accompanying destroyers are overdue for maintenance, having been at sea since June.
The strike group was deployed to Europe initially, but it was redirected to the Caribbean to support the administration’s counternarcotics campaign around Latin America and the U.S. military raid that led to the capture of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro.
Last month, as President Donald Trump attempted to pressure Iran into halting its nuclear program, the Pentagon extended the Ford’s deployment and ordered it back across the Atlantic to the Middle East. At the time, the carrier and its escort ships had been at sea for nearly eight months.
Although the Ford is the Navy’s newest and most advanced carrier, being deployed for that long takes a toll on the ship’s systems.
In-dock repair times are scheduled and coordinated months in advance around other ships in the fleet, so extending the deployment means not only that the Ford’s repairs will be delayed, but also that the repairs of all the other warships scheduled afterward will slip.
The Ford is likely to be replaced at sea with the USS George H.W. Bush carrier strike group, which was finishing its training workups prior to deployment.
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