A Crisis in U.S. Naval Readiness, Revealed
Democrats bemoan the USS Abraham Lincoln but won’t fund the Navy.
By The Editorial Board
USS Abraham Lincoln Brian Wilbur/Navy Office of Information/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesDemocrats this week are expressing outrage over press reports of low morale and tough conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, the aircraft carrier deployed for 250 days, much of it supporting President Trump’s military action in Iran.
This is a new level of chutzpah from the party that won’t pass a bill to finance military operations, and the causes of declining naval readiness aren’t new or mysterious.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal wrote the Defense Department this week expressing “serious concerns” about the Lincoln.
The press is publishing accounts from family members about working and living conditions on the ship.
“They’re pushing our service men and women to the limit,” Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego posted online, and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to be fired.
Mr. Hegseth has denied the press reports of sparse food and bad plumbing, and anecdotal accounts should be viewed cautiously in a crew of about 5,000.
When similar reports emerged from the USS Gerald Ford earlier this year, Chief of Naval Operations Daryl Caudle later told Congress the ship’s plumbing was “less than a 1 percent problem” of about six million toilet flushes on the deployment, usually due to misuse like a flushed rag.
“In my years in the Navy, it wouldn’t be a sea story if there wasn’t some embellishment,” Hung Cao, acting Navy Secretary, said at the time.
The USS George Washington is on the way to relieve the Lincoln.
Some 200 consecutive days at sea is a physical and mental sacrifice.
And if Democrats are so concerned, perhaps they could expedite passage of the $17 billion for U.S. military operational costs that the Administration requested?
Democrats have been refusing to pass a special appropriation for Iran lest anyone think they support the Commander in Chief.
The underlying problem is that the U.S. burns naval power faster than it produces it, and the readiness spiral precedes the Trump Administration.
The U.S. Navy aims for six- or seven-month rotations for carriers, but deployments regularly run nine months.
The USS Gerald Ford this year returned from a record 326 days deployed.
The USS Dwight Eisenhower deployed in 2023 for about 270 days, and the USS Harry Truman did in 2024 for 251 days.
That means longer and more expensive maintenance and more stress on personnel, who may decide to leave the service.
“When it goes eight, nine-plus months,”
Adm. Caudle said this year, “those critical components that we weren’t expecting to repair are now on the table, so the work package grows.”
A stressed carrier force is a sign that the U.S. doesn’t have sufficient naval assets to cover U.S. interests around the globe.
It will require sustained resources to expand the fleet, with a more diverse mix of ships, and to recruit the sailors needed to man them.
If Democrats don’t want to help, and they probably don’t given their sharp move to the left, this is a worthy priority for Republicans in Congress.
Yet the GOP seems ready to abandon the President’s $350 billion defense request as part of a reconciliation bill.
Everything in Washington these days turns partisan, but Mr. Trump’s decision to strike in Iran didn’t cause the Navy’s readiness dysfunction.
It exposed the problem to a larger public audience.
The open question is whether the country will start the long and hard work of turning the national aircraft carrier that is the U.S. Navy.
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