USS Abraham Lincoln’s record deployment highlights shortfalls of US military readiness

Navy readiness is a finite reserve that has been overstretched by a US military appetite for interventions in the past 50 years that has not tracked with a rise in danger.

By: Monica Duffy Toft, Tufts University, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: August 27, 2026

Words: 1,160

Last Updated: 1 month, 3 weeks ago

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By Monica Duffy Toft, Tufts University

Reports from the USS Abraham Lincoln describe a crew running on almost no sleep and suffering mental strain.

The Navy’s own account acknowledged that the Lincoln spent 266 days deployed, 200 of them in a combat zone. It said that meal plans were adjusted when fresh resupply was unavailable, and that its sailors and Marines had been “pushed to their limits.”

The instinct may be to …

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