US aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford returns to Middle East after repairs: Report

The USS Gerald R. Ford has returned to the Middle East, transiting the Suez Canal into the Red Sea alongside destroyers USS Mahan and USS Winston S. Churchill, a US official told CBS News on Sunday.

The Ford had departed the Croatian port city of Split in early April following a five-day stop for scheduled repairs and resupply after a fire broke out in the ship's laundry and berthing facilities on March 12. An investigation into the fire remains ongoing.

The carrier now joins the USS Abraham Lincoln, currently operating in the northern Arabian Sea. Together they give the US two carrier strike groups in the region. A third, the USS George H.W. Bush, currently rounding the Cape of Good Hope, is expected to arrive by the end of the month, which would give Washington a three-carrier strike group operating simultaneously in the area.

The Ford has been at sea since June and has already broken the record for the longest carrier deployment since the Vietnam War, following earlier operations in the Caribbean before its Middle East posting.

The Pentagon and US Central Command did not immediately respond to Anadolu's request for confirmation.

The Ford's return comes amid ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran.