The USS Gerald R. Ford is undergoing repairs in Greece after a fire.
NORFOLK, Va. — The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) pulled into port at Souda Bay, Greece, for maintenance and repairs following a fire earlier this month, the Navy said Monday.
The March 12 fire started in the carrier’s aft laundry room while the ship was underway. The Navy said the port visit will allow crews to assess damage, make repairs and resupply the vessel.
“The aircraft carrier remains fully mission capable,” the Navy said in the statement.
A ship spotter reported that the Ford entered the Suez Canal on Saturday, accompanied by three destroyers and a replenishment ship. It is unclear whether the destroyers continued north through the canal.
More than 200 sailors were treated for smoke inhalation after the fire, and one sailor was medically evacuated from the ship, according to USNI News. Two sailors were treated for lacerations. Smoke damage extended into berthing areas, leading the Navy to pull 1,000 mattresses from the future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) in Newport News, Va., to replace those lost. More than 100 racks were destroyed, a Pentagon spokesperson told USNI News.
USNI News previously reported that the Ford is expected to undergo more than a week of repairs, though the Navy did not provide a timeline on Monday.
Monday marked 272 days at sea for the Ford. If the deployment extends into April, the carrier will surpass the post–Vietnam War record of 294 days, set by the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2020.
The extended deployment aligns with a recent trend of longer carrier operations as the U.S. bolsters its naval presence in the Middle East amid the Israel-Hamas war and Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.