USS Abraham Lincoln’s record deployment highlights shortfalls of US military readiness

The USS Abraham Lincoln spent 266 days deployed, 200 in a combat zone, with the Navy's own account describing crews pushed to their limits and meal plans adjusted amid resupply shortfalls, following the Trump administration's February 2026 decision to join Israel in war against Iran. The author notes Trump was reportedly warned beforehand about risks including a hardened Iranian nuclear posture, a possible Strait of Hormuz closure, and 'readiness problems for an overstretched force.'

The piece situates this within decades of documented strain: a 2015 GAO warning about degraded ship maintenance, expired warfare certifications preceding the fatal 2017 Fitzgerald and McCain collisions, and a 2025 warning from an Army sergeant major that operational tempo had exceeded post-9/11 levels. A database built by the author and a co-researcher found U.S. military interventions rose nearly 50% after the Cold War even as the strategic stakes of intervention sites declined.

Relieving the Lincoln required redeploying the USS George Washington from Japan, leaving the western Pacific without a U.S. carrier — what the author calls closing one gap by opening another, arguing readiness is being borrowed from elsewhere rather than restored.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.