250 Days At Sea Forces US Navy To Replace Aircraft Carrier USS Abraham Lincoln

The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln will be replaced in the Middle East, US President Donald Trump said on August 14, amidst reports of supply shortages and declining crew morale.

President Trump told reporters the carrier was already moving out of the region and would be replaced by another vessel of a similar type.

He also said that families of the roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard the ship have no reason for concern, despite weeks of reporting on strained conditions at sea.

The Nimitz-class carrier left its home port of San Diego, California, in November 2025 and has logged over 250 days at sea.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, said the deployment has gone over 200 days without a single port call, the longest such stretch on record for a Navy carrier.

5,000 sailors and Marines serve aboard the Lincoln, which was commissioned in 1989 as the fifth of the Navy’s 10 Nimitz-class ships.

Many websites reported this week that several sailors had attempted to jump overboard during the deployment, citing interviews with family members and active-duty crew.

A Navy official said the service has not recorded an increase in suicidal ideation or attempts aboard the ship and that internal tracking of such reports has declined in recent months.

The Navy confirmed that one sailor went overboard earlier this month and was recovered and treated, though officials have not disclosed the circumstances surrounding the incident.

200 family members met Acting Navy Secretary at a town hall in San Diego last week to raise concerns over safety and mail delays aboard the carrier. According to some reports sailors have faced shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing failures and repeated disruptions to mail delivery.

The United States Secretary of Defence called the reports “completely misrepresented” and said that every ship and crew receives the resources the Navy can provide.

The Navy denied similar reports in April, when questions about conditions aboard the Lincoln first surfaced, and US Secretary of Defence dismissed them at the time.

The Navy has ordered the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, homeported in Yokosuka, Japan, to head toward the Middle East as the Lincoln’s replacement, a US official said on condition of anonymity.

The George Washington completed a port visit in Vietnam on August 5 before turning toward the Middle East. The official said the redeployment had been planned before the current controversy began, though no arrival date for the carrier has been announced.

The Lincoln has operated under US Central Command since being redirected to the region in January to support American operations against Iran, now in its sixth month.

Reference: CGTN/CNN