When the destroyers The Sullivans and Delbert D. Black deployed in the fall to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, they joined the Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group that was already well into its cruise, the Navy Times reports.
The warships’ arrivals were part of an experiment the Navy is currently undertaking, where it swaps destroyers out mid-deployment, part of a broader concept that U.S. Fleet Forces Command head Adm. Daryl Caudle is spearheading to supplement a carrier strike group with additional destroyers that the strike group did not initially deploy with — a departure from the traditional model.
