Topline

The military is reportedly preparing to send the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to the Arabian Sea to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln after reports of a 260-plus-day deployment taking a mental and physical toll on soldiers and Marines, though Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claims the descriptions from crew and their families were “completely misrepresented.”

Key Facts

The 5,000 crew members of the USS Abraham Lincoln have been at sea for more than 260 days as of this week in one of the longest aircraft carrier deployments in modern history, and families and legislators have warned of a worsening mental health crisis onboard that has reportedly seen multiple attempts by servicemembers to jump off the ship.

Multiple military publications and Congressmen have sounded the alarm about conditions aboard the 37-year-old, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which is in its ninth month at sea and fifth month of combat operations against Iran.

The USS George Washington, which is based in Japan, will replace the Lincoln, the Wall Street Journal reported citing sources familiar with the matter, but it’s not clear exactly when.

The Lincoln’s deployment started on Nov. 21 and was expected to end in May, but it has been extended several times with no announced end date.

The public has been made aware of conditions onboard including rationed food and broken amenities, but Hegseth has dismissed the accounts as “more fake news” and did so again on Thursday, saying the reports "completely misrepresented" conditions onboard.

The Navy has not responded to Forbes’ request for comment.

Key background

The USS Abraham Lincoln, which functions as a mobile air base at sea, left its homeport in San Diego on Nov. 21 for a routine Pacific deployment. The carrier was redirected to the Middle East in January, ahead of the U.S. and Israel's attacks on Iran, and has been stationed in the Arabian Sea ever since. The crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln has stepped foot on land only two days since leaving San Diego, according to independent military publication Stars and Stripes—one in Guam in December (where many sailors were not allowed to disembark) and one re-stocking stop in Oman in July, where sailors who could leave the ship were restricted to a secure compound within the port. Officials have been unable to tell families when the Lincoln will return home and one veteran told Stars and Stripes "uncertainty" over when a deployment will end can take a "significant toll" on servicemembers. One wife told the outlet her husband had texted her saying “he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow,” and one parent told the outlet their sailor son reported "he and his shipmates constantly think about jumping off the ship just for relief." The Navy Times, an independent news outlet that covers the U.S. Navy, reported multiple servicemembers have attempted to jump from the carrier and Stars and Stripes also reported on thwarted suicide attempts onboard. Rep. Mike Levin,D-Calif., has said servicemembers are dealing with inhumane physical conditions on the ship and Rep. Jason Crow ,D-Colo., has warned the mental "strain on our service members and their families is building week by week."

CRUCIAL QUOTE

"Moldy showers, broken toilets, laundry down for weeks, long stretches with no hot water, a meal that came down to half a cup of rice and two tortillas," Levin said of life aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. “No soap, deodorant or toothpaste.”

BIG NUMBER

Six months. That had been the modern-day standard deployment for the Navy’s carrier strike groups, but too few in service and too many hotspots have led to increasingly long terms. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest and most advanced aircraft carrier ever built, holds the modern deployment record of 326 days at sea. Its deployment ended in May.