“These reports warrant immediate attention, but they also raise a broader question: whether the Navy can sustain the operational tempo now being demanded of its carrier force, particularly as this administration repeatedly commits US forces to conflicts of its own choosing and increasingly relies on aircraft carriers to sustain those operations,”

Richard Blumenthal · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-17

Blumenthal wrote in a letter to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth raising alarm over deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Lincoln.