The US Navy is investigating whether sailors aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford deliberately started the fire that tore through the aircraft carrier's main laundry spaces on 12 March — a blaze that took more than 30 hours to extinguish and left over 600 crew members without proper sleeping quarters. The carrier, the most expensive warship ever built, is now diverting to Souda Naval Base in Crete for repairs and a formal investigation into the incident, according to sources with direct knowledge of the planned port call.
The investigation explicitly includes the possibility of deliberate sabotage by crew members, with one theory suggesting the fire was intentionally set to interrupt the carrier's lengthy and repeatedly extended mission. The Ford has now entered its tenth month of deployment, with crew members told their assignment will likely stretch into May — twice the length of a normal aircraft carrier deployment.
Extended. Then Extended Again.
The USS Gerald R. Ford departed Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, on 24 June 2025 for what was initially a routine deployment to the US European Command area. What followed was a sequence of mission redirections that progressively pushed the crew further from home. It was subsequently redirected to the US Southern Command area for counter-narcotics operations before being extended again and sent to the Middle East ahead of the start of hostilities with Iran.
'That extension will ultimately be about an 11-month deployment, so there will be an impact on her return and the schedule for her maintenance availability so she's ready to go again,' Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jim Kilby told lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Should the Ford remain deployed until mid-April, it will break the post-Vietnam War record of 294 days set by USS Abraham Lincoln in 2020. An extension into May would see it rival deployment lengths not recorded since the Vietnam War era itself.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said in a statement: 'Our sailors understand the importance of their service. They are away from home longer than planned because the nation needs them forward and ready.' Those words have done little to ease the strain felt aboard a vessel that has been at sea, under fire, and under pressure for the better part of a year.
A Ship Under Strain
In October, the carrier and its 4,500 sailors and pilots were stationed in the Mediterranean when Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered it to shift course to the Caribbean, bolstering President Trump's pressure campaign against Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro. From there, the ship was quickly redirected to the Middle East, where it joined the US-Israeli war against Iran, now entering its third week.
The fire broke out in the ship's main laundry area and spread rapidly through the ventilation system. It took more than 30 hours to extinguish, damaging sleeping quarters so severely that crew members have been forced to sleep on floors and tables. US Central Command confirmed in a statement that 'the cause of the fire was not combat-related and is contained. There is no damage to the ship's propulsion plant, and the aircraft carrier remains fully operational.'
The Ford had also been plagued by plumbing issues, with its vacuum collection system malfunctioning and maintenance calls related to sewage issues logged at a rate of nearly one per day.
The Sabotage Theory
Iran's state broadcaster, citing a source in the central headquarters of the Iranian Armed Forces, reported that the fire may have been deliberately started by American servicemen who did not want to continue participating in military operations against Iran. While Iranian state media claims should be treated with caution, Western reporting has since confirmed that the possibility of deliberate sabotage is being formally investigated by the US Navy, independent of any Iranian framing of events.
JUST IN: The US Navy is investigating whether sailors aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford deliberately set fire to their own ship to end the deployment.
— Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ (@shanaka86) March 17, 2026
That is the sentence. Read it again.
The $13 billion carrier, the most expensive warship ever built, is now diverting to Souda… https://t.co/LOop7FJIYG pic.twitter.com/VBGKPtZ4QY
The broader context lends weight to why the theory is being taken seriously. 'Fatigue accumulates and time away from home weighs on sailors,' Rear Adm Paul Lanzilotta said in a statement. 'Our responsibility as leaders is to ensure they are supported — with reliable shipboard services, clear communication, and consistent engagement.' Whether that support proved sufficient for all 4,500 crew members now appears to be a question for investigators.
If confirmed, the sabotage claim would represent one of the most serious internal discipline events in the modern US Navy — raising fundamental questions about the institutional limits of extended combat deployments and the human cost of mission creep on crews who were never told how long they would be gone. The Ford's diversion to Crete and the formal opening of a sabotage investigation signals that those questions can no longer be deferred.
