In the afternoon hours, online tracking systems reported an important development in the Caribbean region, in which two embarked F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters, presumably operating from the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, carried out an overflight of the Gulf of Venezuela. The presence of these two combat aircraft, which were presumably supported by other assets, adds to the recent deployments that the U.S. Navy has been conducting in the region, within the framework of the White House’s strategy of continuing to pressure the Bolivarian Regime, led by Nicolás Maduro.
According to what was reported by various sources, the two aircraft conducted a forty-minute flight over international airspace in the Gulf of Venezuela and carried the callsigns “Rhino 11” and “Rhino 12.” Although no official details have been released by the Navy or the Department of Defense, both aircraft reportedly belonged to the Carrier Air Wing of the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which has been operating in the region since last November.
Recently, the nuclear-powered vessel and lead ship of the new Gerald R. Ford class, intended to replace the current Nimitz class, completed a logistics and rest stop in the U.S. Virgin Islands. According to various open-source information (OSINT), the ship departed from the port of Frenchman’s Cove, in St. Thomas, heading southeast.
Later, and coinciding with this development, the U.S. Navy published on its social media accounts information regarding operations in the Caribbean Sea carried out by the aircraft carrier, highlighting the central role of its Super Hornet fighter jets and emphasizing the support provided within the area of responsibility of U.S. Southern Command and the SOUTHERN SPEAR Operation led by the Department of Defense.
Regarding the geographic area of the deployment, and given the current context of tension in the Caribbean, it is worth noting that the U.S. F/A-18s, considering the distances within the gulf, could have violated Venezuelan airspace, potentially provoking, or not, a response from the Bolivarian regime.
By way of brief description, the Gulf of Venezuela is a body of water approximately 120.7 km long from north to south and 241.4 km wide from east to west at its broadest points, while its opening toward the Caribbean Sea, located to the north, spans just 83.7 km, with Venezuela’s sovereign airspace extending 19.3 km from each side of the coast.
However, although they did not enter the Gulf of Venezuela, tracking systems also indicated the presence of electronic warfare aircraft, also presumably from the USS Gerald R. Ford, which conducted a series of orbits over the Caribbean Sea while the Super Hornets carried out their flight.
This new deployment by U.S. military assets adds to a growing list recorded over recent weeks, which already includes the presence of B-1B Lancer and B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers, along with F-35B stealth fighters from the Marine Corps, the latter operating from Puerto Rico.
Currently, and reinforced by the arrival in November of the most modern nuclear aircraft carrier in the U.S. surface fleet, there is a deployment of 15,000 personnel in the region, along with ships such as guided-missile destroyers, amphibious assault ships—both LPD and LHD—as well as support vessels, in addition to those assets deployed from Puerto Rico and, as observed with radar deployments, in Trinidad and Tobago.
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