The United States has decided to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, deployed in the Iran war, with the USS George Washington, previously stationed in East Asia. [Herald DB]
The United States has decided to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, deployed in the Iran war, with the USS George Washington, previously stationed in East Asia. [Herald DB]

As the Iran war drags on, the Donald Trump administration has decided to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln — tied up at sea for months conducting operations in the Middle East — with the USS George Washington. The redeployment of the George Washington, previously assigned to East Asia, is expected to alter the United States' posture toward China in the region.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the George Washington is preparing to head to the Middle East to relieve the Lincoln. Neither the Trump administration nor the US military has made an official announcement.

The George Washington is the sixth Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the US Navy, homeported at Yokosuka, Japan. It has been permanently stationed in the Indo-Pacific region, and more specifically in East Asia.

The George Washington was first forward-deployed to Japan in 2008. It later left Japan beginning in 2015 for operations and a major overhaul, before returning in 2024.

The dispatch of the East Asia-based George Washington to the Middle East is seen as a consequence of the prolonged Iran war. The Lincoln departed port last November and was deployed to the Middle East in January ahead of the conflict. The carrier and its embarked aircraft played a central role in US military operations against Iran and subsequently served as a cornerstone of the American naval blockade targeting the country.

With the Lincoln's deployment stretching beyond 250 days, reports have emerged that crew fatigue and stress have reached a breaking point — the sailors have effectively gone nine months without setting foot on land. The Guardian reported that Lincoln crew members are enduring extreme stress, with some cases of sailors attempting to jump overboard. According to a letter sent by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Democrat, Connecticut) to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, the Lincoln had gone more than 200 consecutive days without a single port call, setting a record for continuous time at sea. In the letter, Blumenthal said reports had surfaced of "shortages of basic necessities, water contamination, plumbing problems, deteriorating mental health, deck safety issues and disruptions to the mail system."

A US official told the Journal that the rotation of the George Washington had been planned before concerns about living conditions aboard the Lincoln were raised.

The Journal did not report specifically on whether another carrier would fill the George Washington's place in East Asia. Given that China's military threat in the region shows no sign of abating, however, a replacement carrier could be sent.

There are also indications that another carrier could be deployed to the Indo-Pacific to replace the George Washington. USNI News, a US naval affairs outlet, reported Thursday that the USS Theodore Roosevelt and its carrier strike group are preparing for deployment in California, and mentioned the possibility that the Roosevelt could replace the George Washington. The Theodore Roosevelt is the fourth Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the US Navy.


kate01@heraldcorp.com