USS Washington Heads to Middle East, Emptying Pacific
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- USS George Washington departed Da Nang, Vietnam, on Saturday for an anticipated deployment to the Middle East to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is participating in the US-Israeli war against Iran.
- USS Abraham Lincoln has been deployed without a port stop for 266 days — a Navy record — with reports of sailors attempting to jump overboard, supply shortages, plumbing failures, and mental health strain among its roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines.
- Trump dismissed concerns about the ship, saying the deployment length was "not nearly enough"; Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth called conditions on board "completely misrepresented," while acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao acknowledged "a small number" of mental health cases but said no meals were missed and no lives lost.
- The Pentagon has not confirmed the rotation; the Lincoln's deployment was supposed to end in May but was extended indefinitely after the US and Israel launched the war against Iran in February.
- USS Washington's departure leaves no US aircraft carrier in the western Pacific — a region where the US has long deterred China — and comes amid reported depletion of US offensive and defensive weapon stockpiles from the Iran war.
- Hudson Institute analyst Bryan Clark said Beijing may use the carrier gap to signal to the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia that "the US is not the big dog in the western Pacific any more," though he does not believe China would attack Taiwan solely over the shift; Iran peace talks have stalled over control of the Strait of Hormuz, though fighting has remained largely subdued recently.
Why it matters: A 266-day record carrier deployment with reported deteriorating crew conditions tests Pentagon accountability, while the Pacific carrier gap — coinciding with reportedly depleted US weapon stockpiles — could weaken deterrence against China. A Navy stretched across two theaters hands leverage to both Iran and Beijing.
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