On Saturday, President Donald Trump announced on social media that the U.S. will send a hospital ship to Greenland to help provide medical care. He shared a post featuring an image of the USNS Mercy, stating, “We are going to send a great hospital boat to Greenland to care for the many people who are sick and not being taken care of there. It’s on the way!!!”
As of late January, the 1,000-bed hospital ship was in drydock at Alabama Shipyard in Mobile, undergoing regular maintenance since July 2025.
The USNS Mercy, which was commissioned in 1986, left San Diego last July for scheduled maintenance at Alabama Shipyard. This work is part of an $18.7 million contract covering a 153-day mid-term availability, including drydocking. This was the Mercy’s first visit to Mobile since the contract was awarded in June 2025.
Currently, both U.S. Navy hospital ships—the USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort—are docked at the Mobile shipyard. Alabama Shipyard announced on January 23 that the USNS Comfort’s arrival marked “the first time in 30 years” that the two ships have been together, calling it “a historic moment.”
Images from late January showed the USNS Mercy still in drydock.
In his post, Trump mentioned that he is coordinating with Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry for the Greenland deployment. Landry was appointed as the special envoy to Greenland last month.
The USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort are the only two hospital ships in the U.S. Navy, each measuring 894 feet long and weighing 69,552 tons. They can hold up to 1,200 military personnel along with 71 civilian mariners and are designed to provide surgical medical facilities for military operations and disaster relief around the world. The USNS Mercy is based at Naval Base San Diego, California.
While in Reduced Operating Status at its San Diego location, the Mercy has a small crew of around eight officers, 53 enlisted personnel, and 15 civilian mariners. The ship can be ready for missions within five days when needed.
Recently, the USNS Mercy took part in the Pacific Partnership 2024 humanitarian mission and was deployed to Los Angeles during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, serving as a hospital for non-COVID patients.
Details about the timing and logistics for a deployment to Greenland are still uncertain due to the ship’s current maintenance situation in Alabama.