US Defense Secretary defends conditions on record-breaking USS Abraham Lincoln deployment

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has defended conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which has spent a record-breaking number of days at sea during a period of more than eight months with only brief stops at ports.

Hegseth called recent reporting in two military-focused outlets in the US, the Navy Times and the Stars and Stripes, "completely misrepresented."

The reports had quoted relatives of sailors recounting stories of poor conditions on board and even a thwarted attempt by a crewmember to throw themselves overboard.

What did Hegseth say about conditions?

The 5,000-person aircraft carrier left San Diego in November for what was scheduled to be a Pacific deployment.

It was subsequently rerouted to the Middle East ready for what the Trump White House called Operation Epic Fury, and has been in the Persian Gulf or the wider region since January amid the war with Iran.

"We make sure every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment," Hegseth told reporters during a visit to Panama on Thursday. "Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody. What they do in those high seas in those austere conditions with less port calls — it's incredible."

Longer deployments at sea, particularly in wartime with higher stress and danger levels and fewer chances for rest and recreation, have always been a challenge for the US Navy.

Senate calls for inspection visit

A day earlier, Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego said he was calling for an official oversight visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln by a bipartisal Senate Delegation to "investigate the alarming conditions."

"Unlike Donald Trump, I've seen active duty," Gallego said. "They 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 repeated the call on Thursday, saying Congress "needs to do its job and hold this administration accountable."

Senator Richard Blumenthal also called for the Navy to account for conditions aboard the aircraft carrier, noting "widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns" and other problems aboard the Lincoln.

What did the military media outlets report?

The Navy Times and Stars and Stripes have had their eye on the USS Abraham Lincoln's record-setting deployment for months but both revisited the issue in depth this week. This followed a direct appeal late last week by family members to Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao and other senior officials in town hall meetings.

The deployment has included 40 days of continuous combat operations in the US Fifth Fleet area of operations and 250 consecutive days at sea, including a record-breaking number of days without even a port stop, restocking supplies at sea and by air as best as the crew could.

"We already had an instance where watchstanders had to stop someone from jumping," Stars and Stripes quoted one sailor as saying.

It also noted various supply and service issues affecting morale, like food rationing, water shortages, and a stretch of more than a week when crew could not do laundry.

It said that many of these issues had since improved, as had mail delivery services — but nevertheless reported a situation of deteriorating morale where, as one sailor put it, "All we want is a date home."

The Lincoln made a brief port call in Oman in early July. Stars and Stripes reported, that allowed it to stock up on valuable produce like fresh fruit and vegetables, but sailors were only permitted to disembark into a secure compound within the port. The ship had also briefly docked in Guam in December, but again with limited shore leave. In the interim it spent the longest period at sea without ever docking in US military history.

The Reuters news agency on Thursday cited a US official, who it said was speaking on condition of anonymity, as saying that another aircraft carrier — the USS George Washington — was headed to the region to relieve the Lincoln. The Wall Street Journal in the US carried similar reports on Thursday. The ship departed Vietnam earlier this week.

Hegseth, Trump both indicate much longer deployment conceivable

When asked about what the US calls its "blockade" of Iran's ports — with the Lincoln a crucial command and air-superiority component in the operation — Hegseth said that the US could continue to enforce it for as long as it wished.

"Indefinitely the United States Navy can maintain a blockade like that because we'll rotate ships in and out, as we have, and we'll continue to," he said.

President Donald Trump had claimed on Wednesday that the navy had "total control" of the Strait of Hormuz and speculated that he might try to permanently police it.

"The USA has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!" Trump wrote online. "Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, 'A WALL OF STEEL,' and there is nothing Iran can do about it."

The head of Iran's Basij paramilitary unit, Hossein Taeb, on Thursday disputed Trump's assesment saying the Strait is "under Iran's control and management."

Commercial shipping — whether bound for Iranian ports or for Gulf states, or trying to sail out of the Gulf — has been drastically reduced in volume throughout the conflict, with risks to commercial crews of all stripes from both sides complicating and often halting journeys.