Carrier Inbound: Trump Sends Gerald R. Ford South to Hit Narco Networks
The Pentagon is putting steel on the water where it counts. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford strike group into the United States Southern Command’s backyard. The mission is simple to say and hard to do. Find the traffickers, throttle their logistics, and remind every cartel boss from the Caribbean Sea to the Orinoco that the United States can reach out and touch their business any hour of the day.
The package is heavy. The Ford sails with escorting destroyers and several thousand sailors and Marines ready to work. The group is leaving the Mediterranean and sliding toward the Caribbean, where additional U.S. warships, a nuclear-powered submarine, P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, and MQ-9 Reaper drones are already hunting. Think layered sensors, persistent eyes, and fast movers stacked over blue water chokepoints that smugglers favor. An F-35 unit is included in the broader force package, though the Navy has not confirmed that those jets are embarked on Ford.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell says the objective is to bolster detection, monitoring, and disruption of illicit actors in the Western Hemisphere. Translation. Cut the head and the tail. Knock out high-value boats, safe havens, and money routes. Government tallies point to roughly ten maritime strikes since early September, with about forty-three traffickers reported killed at sea. Add visible bomber flights, including B-1B Lancer and B-52 Stratofortress runs near Venezuela, and you get a pressure campaign designed to squeeze both criminal networks and the regimes that shelter them.
Why a carrier now? Scale and signal. A carrier air wing buys airborne command, long legs, and rapid response across a vast hunting ground. It also tells the neighborhood that Washington is done treating transnational crime like a nuisance. Ford can help find a fast go-fast in rough chop, hold it on the scope, and, if needed, end the fight before it reaches shore. That changes cartel calculus in a way a lone cutter cannot.
Expect friction. Smugglers adapt, states protest, and disinformation will try to muddy every engagement. The right metric is not one dramatic bust. It is fewer boats leaving river mouths, fewer corrupt officials taking payments, and fewer overdoses in American towns. This is a campaign, not a headline.
Bottom line. The Ford steaming south is resolve backed by hardware. If the strike group tightens the maritime noose, keeps pressure on Venezuelan-linked gangs, and sustains tempo without accidents or escalation, that is a win worth banking.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and its strike group to Latin America under US Southern Command.
Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/Qu43lwmze4
— AF Post (@AFpost) October 24, 2025
Squeezing the Kremlin’s Purse: Zelensky Presses Washington for Full-Sector Energy Sanctions
Volodymyr Zelensky is turning the screws in public, asking Washington to widen its fresh sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil into a blanket hit on Russia’s entire oil sector. He called the latest U.S. move a big step, then pressed for more during stops in Brussels and London, arguing that only a comprehensive energy squeeze will drag Moscow toward real negotiations after more than three years of war.
The facts on the ground shifted this week. The United States sanctioned Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia’s two largest oil producers, with the Treasury detailing designations on parent firms and a slate of subsidiaries. That blocks U.S. persons from dealings and tightens the financial vise on a core revenue stream for the Kremlin.
Europe matched the moment. The European Union adopted its nineteenth sanctions package with a phased ban on Russian liquefied natural gas, ending long-term contracts on January 1, 2027. Member states also targeted the shadow fleet and tightened financial and trade measures, pushing the bloc another step away from Russian energy dependence.
Zelensky is pairing the economic ask with a military one. He wants longer-reach strike options, including cruise missiles, to raise the cost of continued aggression. Reporting indicates the United States has declined to provide Tomahawks so far, even as Kyiv keeps lobbying for additional range and mass. The message from Zelensky’s team is simple. Squeeze the cash, stretch the battlefield, and force a rethink in the Kremlin.
Will it bite quickly? Russia has spent years building workarounds and rerouting oil to willing buyers in Asia. That blunts immediate shock. But coordinated U.S. and EU action complicates financing, insurance, shipping, and price realization. If Washington expands sanctions across the oil sector, enforcement on traders and logistics will matter as much as the blacklists themselves. Think of it like interdicting a smuggling network. You do not just seize the boat. You track the bankers, the insurers, and the cutouts until the margin disappears.
The political framing is clear on both sides. Kyiv sees momentum in a layered campaign that hits Russia’s wallet while keeping weapons flowing. Moscow calls the measures counterproductive and vows to route around them, even as its media machine downplays the pressure and answers with more strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure. The test over the next several months is whether revenues fall, procurement slows, and the Kremlin’s capacity to sustain large-scale operations erodes. If the cash burn outruns the cash flow, talks get less abstract.
Bottom line. The new U.S. sanctions are real, the EU LNG clock is now ticking, and Zelensky is pushing for the wider bite that could move Putin’s calculus. The follow-through is everything. Enforcement, secondary targets, and long-range tools will decide whether this is a headline or a hinge.
🚨 URGENT: Zelenskyy in London Pushes US for TOTAL Russian Oil Sanctions & Long-Range Missiles!
Calls for Tomahawks to Strike Russia Deep as Europe Vows to Shield Ukraine from Putin’s Attacks. Will this tip the war? pic.twitter.com/ttoLgUT2gp
— Global Insight (@GlobalInsight20) October 24, 2025
Morning Brief: Trump Begins Weeklong Trip to Asia, The Ford Sails South, Zelensky Presses US for Deeper Russian Sanctions
As Trump jets to the Indo Pacific for a knife edge sit-down with Xi, a U.S. carrier steams south and Zelensky presses full sector sanctions, squeezing Moscow as cartels feel the heat. Welcome to Saturday morning. It’s October 25th, 2025 and this is your SOFREP Morning Brief.
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