Why Navy Planes Recently Flew In Formation Over The USS Gerald R. Ford

By Joe Capraro
US Navy personnel on deck of USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier watching ceremonial flyover Spencer Staggs/US Navy

Military flyovers are an impressive sight, especially when viewed from sea level. This usually requires being on terra firma during a major sporting event, patriotic holiday, or military funeral; but anyone in the Caribbean Sea on or near the world's largest aircraft carrier in late January got a free show courtesy of the U.S. Navy Carrier Air Wing 8 as part of a ceremony marking a change of command. Photos appear to show seven fighters, a Grumman E2D early warning aircraft, and two SeaHawk helicopters flying directly over the USS Gerald Ford. The official procedure to hand command over from Capt. Rick Burgess to Capt. David Skarosi was held on board the ship May 12, 2025 while it was docked safely at the Naval station in Norfolk, Virginia. 

Capt. Skarosi was in command when the ship headed to the North Atlantic less than six weeks later. The massive carrier paid a visit to the Arctic Circle before heading to the Mediterranean, where it stayed through November 2025. At that point, the Navy's top brass decided to send it back across the ocean to the Caribbean to support U.S. Southern Command operations there.

Why did the Navy have a change-of-command ceremony?

USS Gerald Ford in Caribbean sea with helicopters doing ceremonial flyover Nathan Sears/US Navy

The ship's original six-month mission has been extended twice, and as of this writing, the carrier and crew have been at sea for 230 days. That's not uncharted territory for the Gerald Ford, though. It was previously on continuous deployment from May 2, 2023, through January 17, 2024 — a stretch of 239 days — under the command of Capt. Burgess. Although Capt. Skarosi remains in charge of the ship, the ceremonial flyover in January was to mark a change of command for the entire Carrier Air Wing 8. 

A January 28 post to the U.S. Navy's X account showed two F-18E Hornet fighters zooming low along the ship's deck and used the hashtag PeaceThrough Strength to lend an element of 'show of force' to the proceedings. The Gerald Ford, along with its aircraft and personnel, has been busy in the region in the first few weeks of the year. The ship can carry up to 90 aircraft at once, and at least one MH-60 SeaHawk helicopter took part in a right of visit boarding operation on January 15. Ford class carriers are an upgrade over the older Nimitz class, thanks to a state-of-the-art electromagnetic launch and arrestor system that replaced older cable catapults.

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