Andrew Latham
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81) sails alongside the world’s largest aircraft carrier the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), Sep. 24, 2025. Winston S. Churchill, as part of Carrier Strike Group 12, is on a scheduled deployment in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operation to support the warfighting effectiveness, lethality and readiness of U.S. Naval Forces, Europe-Africa, and defend U.S. Allied and partner interest in the region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Hector Rodriguez)
Key Points and Summary – A U.S. aircraft carrier strike group, likely to be soon near Venezuela, is neither a token counternarcotics gesture nor a prelude to invasion. It’s compellence: calibrated military pressure to force behavioral change and reassert a U.S. sphere of influence in the Western Hemisphere.
-The move signals hierarchy and escalation dominance to Caracas and its extra-regional patrons while stopping short of regime change.
The first-in-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) transits the Atlantic Ocean, March 19, 2023. Ford is underway in the Atlantic Ocean executing its Composite Training Unit Exercise (COMPTUEX), an intense, multi-week exercise designed to fully integrate a carrier strike group as a cohesive, multi-mission fighting force and to test their ability to carry out sustained combat operations from the sea. As the first-in-class ship of Ford-class aircraft carriers, CVN 78 represents a generational leap in the U.S. Navy’s capacity to project power on a global scale. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jackson Adkins)
-More broadly, it reflects Washington’s shift from passive deterrence to active boundary management amid multipolar rivalry—echoed in Europe and the Indo-Pacific.
-Success hinges on credibility and restraint: persuading under pressure, enforcing limits without overreach, and restoring a regional equilibrium long assumed but seldom spelled out.
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