The USS Abraham Lincoln has been at sea in the Middle East for months, and with no clear end in sight for the war in Iran, concerns for those aboard the aircraft carrier—and for the vessel itself—have mounted amid a series of troubling reports.
Another aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington, had begun making its way towards the Middle East as of Thursday to replace the Lincoln, multiple news outlets reported. President Donald Trump appeared to confirm the reported ship swap on Friday, saying that the Lincoln "is moving right now, or very shortly and is being replaced with another very similar ship.”
The Washington’s deployment comes as reports have emerged in recent months recounting worsening living conditions, mental health concerns, and supply shortages on board the Lincoln.
Trump seemed to deny the reports on the state of the Lincoln and its crew on Friday, responding “No, they’re not,” in response to a reporter saying that families of the crew members are worried about conditions on board. He also said, when asked if the carrier has been deployed for too long, that it has been deployed “not nearly long enough.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth on Thursday called the reports of dire conditions on the Lincoln “completely misrepresented.”
“We make sure that every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment. Some deployments are longer than others. I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody,” Hegseth, with a hand to his heart, told reporters. “I want them home as soon as everybody else, too.”
The Defense Department did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment.
Here’s what to know about the USS Abraham Lincoln, the concerns that have been raised over conditions on board, and the burgeoning calls for its crew to return home.
What is the USS Abraham Lincoln, and how long has it been deployed?
The Lincoln is in its ninth month at sea and has been deployed for more than 260 days.
The vessel works as a mobile airbase and command center with its own defense systems. It’s the length of more than three football fields and has a crew of roughly 5,000 when fully deployed.
It departed from San Diego in November on an alternate deployment, but was redirected towards the Middle East in January to provide tactical support to U.S. forces ahead of the war in Iran, which began with an initial wave of American-Israeli strikes at the end of February.
The Lincoln has played a key defensive role in the war against Iran, having shot down “hundreds and hundreds of missiles” and drone attacks that targeted the vessel, according to Hegseth.
“Every single one of those shots, easily shot down miles and miles away from the Abe Lincoln,” he said in April. “They were blowing ammo into fantasy land.”
The ship has also had a part in enforcing the U.S.’s blockade of Iranian ports.
The Lincoln’s deployment was expected to end in May, but was extended indefinitely.
The reported ship swap with the Washington comes as Trump has reinstated a blockade against Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and peace talks have stalled between the countries.
Reports of issues on board the carrier
Several reports have detailed poor conditions aboard the Lincoln. According to MS Now, which interviewed a dozen family members of crew members, those aboard the ship have been dealing with moldy showers and running out of key toiletries, such as toothpaste, deodorant, and soap. The outlet was also told that crew members are working grueling shifts with limited days off and that there are holes on the Lincoln’s flight deck, where pilots take off and land.
A spouse of a service member on the Lincoln also told CBS News that sailors had previously experienced food shortages. Another report from USA Today contained photos of rationed meals served to crew on board the carrier.
Adm. Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations, pushed back against reports of food shortages back in April. “In no way, shape or form, has there been a time where in, at least in this deployment, where they’ve not met the nutritional requirements of our menu,” Caudle said.
As the deployment has stretched on and living conditions on board have allegedly deteriorated, the crew of the Lincoln has also reportedly struggled with increasing mental health concerns. The Navy Times and Stars and Stripes reported several instances of crew members on the vessel attempting to jump overboard.
An unnamed U.S. official confirmed to CNN that a crew member went overboard and was rescued last month, an event that was viewed as a mental health incident by the Navy, according to the outlet.
More than 200 families of crew members attended a meeting in San Diego last week with acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao. Many of the families raised a litany of concerns at a later virtual meeting, including about the crew’s mental health, safety, a lack of supplies and food, and water contamination, according to MS Now, which reviewed recordings of the meeting.
Cao was unable to specify during the meeting when the crew on the Lincoln would return home, according to the outlet.
The U.S. military has strongly pushed back against reporting about mental health concerns regarding the Lincoln’s crew.
“We have not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship,” a U.S. official tells TIME. “Adapting to life at sea can be difficult, so we've learned how to provide resources and help Sailors with these transitions. We are not experiencing an uptick in mental health issues aboard Abraham Lincoln.”
The official says that “religious, medical and mental health professionals” are aboard the Lincoln, including five chaplains, a psychologist, a social worker, three "behavioral health technicians,” and a service dog “to support crew morale and emotional welfare.”
The official did not provide information regarding the ongoing deployment of those aboard the Lincoln “due to operations security.”
“The Sailors and Marines of the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group remain resilient and resolved after more than 260 days at sea, 10,000 aircraft flights, and 1.5 million pounds of ordnance expended,” U.S. Central Command posted on X on Thursday. “No service members aboard the aircraft carrier have died, and the one Sailor who fell overboard Aug. 3 was quickly and safely recovered.”
Democrats push for answers
The reports about conditions on board the Lincoln have sparked calls from several Democrats urging the Defense Department to remedy the situation.
In a letter to Hegseth and Cao, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, noted that the vessel’s crew members have not been to a port in a record-setting 200-plus days and demanded answers to a series of questions about the crew and the state of the ship.
“There have been widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns, and disruptions in the mail system,” Blumenthal wrote. “These reports warrant immediate attention, but they also raise a broader question: whether the Navy can sustain the operational tempo now being demanded of its carrier force, particularly as this Administration repeatedly commits U.S. forces to conflicts of its own choosing and increasingly relies on aircraft carriers to sustain those operations.”
He also noted that the long deployment of the Lincoln is not an isolated incident, “suggesting that extended deployments may be becoming a feature rather than an exception of the Navy's force-generation model.” The USS Gerald R. Ford, used for the U.S.’s military operation in Venezuela, spent 326 days at sea before its return in May, Blumenthal wrote, which he noted was “nearly twice the length of a traditional six-month carrier deployment and the longest modern U.S. carrier deployment since the Vietnam era.”
Sen. Ruben Gallego requested an oversight visit to investigate the reports.
“Unlike Donald Trump, I've seen active duty,” Gallego wrote on X. “The way he's treating our service members as he carries out this illegal war is not just disgusting; it’s dangerous. These sailors are owed a sense of when they will go home.”
Gallego referenced the reports of crew members threatening to jump overboard, shifts lasting as long as 16 hours, rationed meals, and moldy showers, which he called “a frightening alarm bell.”
Rep. Sara Jacobs of California, who has introduced a War Powers Resolution to restrict Trump’s authority to continue the conflict in Iran without congressional approval, said that the Lincoln’s crew was “going through hell” and called for an end to the war. She described the reported poor conditions on the carrier as “a personnel issue and a national security risk.”
Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a Navy veteran, has also taken to social media to call for accountability.
“Our servicemembers deserve better than this,” he said in a video posted to Bluesky. “There needs to be an investigation.” Kelly also blamed Trump having “no way out” of the war with Iran for the extended deployment of those aboard the Lincoln.
Rep. Mike Levin, who represents part of the San Diego region where the Lincoln was deployed from in November, took jabs at Hegseth’s comments downplaying the reports about the carrier.
“When families first raised the alarm back in April, Pete Hegseth called it fake news,” he wrote on X. “These men and women signed up to serve their country. The least their country owes them is hot water, a working toilet, and a real meal. Hegseth cannot even manage that, and he has the nerve to look their families in the eye and call them liars.”
A number of other Democrats have also joined the chorus of concerned voices over the Lincoln, including Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado; Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts; and Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Senate Defense Appropriations subcommittee.