Supply problems reportedly plaguing the USS Abraham Lincoln can be traced in part to an Iranian drone strike that destroyed a key U.S. logistical facility in Bahrain at the beginning of the Iran war.
The Iranian attack came in response to joint U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Tehran and destroyed a significant portion of the Navy’s base in Bahrain, including a logistical facility that American forces had long relied upon, according to The New York Times.
The destruction has complicated efforts to resupply the Lincoln and the roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard the aircraft carrier as its deployment stretches beyond eight months.
The Lincoln has been operating in the Arabian Sea, making Bahrain a convenient location for supplying the Nimitz-class warship. But with that option disrupted, the Navy has instead been forced to rely on Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, a smaller installation located roughly 2,200 miles away in the Indian Ocean, an anonymous official told the Times.
The logistical difficulties come as families of sailors aboard the Lincoln have begun publicly raising concerns about conditions on the carrier.
Family members have shared text messages and allegations from personnel aboard the ship claiming sailors have lacked hygiene products and fresh food and, at times, have been served rotten meat. Families have also claimed desperate sailors have jumped overboard.
The Navy, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump have denied the allegations.
Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, meanwhile, called the reported conditions “inexcusable.”
Hegseth pushed back on reports about the Lincoln this week, saying the situation had been “completely misrepresented.”
“Hearing from the troops on the frontlines in @CENTCOM — air, land, and sea (including the USS Abraham Lincoln),” Hegseth wrote in an Instagram post late Friday. “Incredible Americans on a historic mission.”
The Lincoln originally deployed from its home base in San Diego on Nov. 21 and has had its deployment extended at least once.
The lengthy stretch at sea has also put the carrier’s deployment into unusual territory under a longstanding Navy tradition.
A ship’s commanding officer can request a “beer day” for the crew for every 45 consecutive days spent at sea. Based on the Lincoln’s deployment, the carrier is already due five such beer days, according to the Times.
The extended deployment comes as the Iran war continues and the loss of the Bahrain logistical hub forces the Navy to depend on a more distant facility to keep the carrier supplied.
Trump, however, indicated Friday that he did not believe the Lincoln had been deployed for an excessive amount of time.
Asked about the carrier’s lengthy deployment amid reports concerning conditions aboard the ship, Trump declared that the Lincoln’s time at sea was “not nearly long enough.”
