China’s newest aircraft carrier may only be able to conduct air operations at about 60% the rate of a 50-year-old US Navy carrier, two former US carrier officers say, a substantial combat limitation for a vessel meant to revolutionize Beijing’s fleet.

The deployment comes after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a 10th strike against a suspected drug smuggling vessel.

The $12.9 billion warship named for former President Gerald R. Ford, who was raised in Grand Rapids, stretches 4.5 acres and is the first of the Navy's next generation of aircraft carriers.

The Pentagon has deployed the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, the largest aircraft carrier in the world, to the region, ostensibly to fight cartels.

WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s administration escalated a U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean on Friday by announcing the deployment of the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier group to Latin America — a show of force far beyond any past counter-narcotics effort and Washington’s most assertive move in the region yet.

ABC News' Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz reports on the possible reasons for the deployment of the aircraft carrier to the waters off of Latin America.

Project CRYSTAL aims to develop a safe, all-weather eVTOL propulsion system that can fly in conditions that most helicopters can't