The United States’ joint attack with Israel towards Iran deeply includes San Diego’s USS Abraham Lincoln, probably the most distinguished and technologically superior nuclear-powered plane carriers in the world and a veteran of main wars in the Middle East.
The flattop launched jet assaults towards Iran on Saturday whereas not less than one in every of its escort ships, the destroyer USS Spruance, fired Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iranian targets, in line with the US Central Command and the Navy. The Spruance and a second destroyer, the USS Pinckney, are additionally based mostly in San Diego, the headquarters of Third Fleet.
The 1,092-foot flattop is the flagship of a nine-ship strike group that options upward of 60 plane and roughly 7,600 personnel, in line with the US Naval Institute.
The plane now aboard the Lincoln comes from Naval Air Station North Island, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, and bases at Point Mugu, Lemoore, situated in the Central Valley, and Whidbey Island in Washington.
The 37-year-old provider is working off Oman in the Arabian Sea with a main mixture of F/A-18 multi-role fighter jets and new technology F-35C stealth fighters. Four years in the past, the Lincoln grew to become the primary provider to deploy with F-35Cs. Both of those plane carry precision-guided air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, giving the provider vary and energy.
The Navy says the fighter jets are supplemented by EA-18 Growler plane, which use digital warfare to jam enemy radar and communications; E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, that are airborne early warning plans; CMC-22B tilt-rotor Ospreys, to move individuals; MH-60R/S Seahawk helicopters for anti-submarine warfare and search and rescue, and unmanned aerial autos for intelligence and surveillance.
The strike-group additionally options six Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, that are often called the workhorse of the Navy as a result of they’re so versatile.
Burke destroyers inventory Tomahawk cruise missiles, a weapon that grew to become well-known throughout Operation Desert Storm in 1991 as a result of they have been used so successfully by ships and submarines. Tomahawks have been initially developed by the Convair division of General Dynamics in San Diego and a few of the missiles can journey about 1,000 miles.
The destroyers are indispensable to the Navy however they lack the glamor of plane carriers, notably the Lincoln, which was commissioned in 1989 throughout the waning years of the Cold War.
The provider grew to become broadly identified in June 1991, throughout its first deployment, when it spearheaded a 23-ship armada that evacuated nearly 45,000 individuals from Luzon Island in the Philippines following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. It then traveled to the Persian Gulf and offered air assist and reconnaissance after the principle preventing had ended in Operation Desert Storm.
The Lincoln returned to the area a number of occasions in the Nineties to assist implement the no-fly zone over southern Iraq. And in March 2003 it helped lead the so-called “shock and awe” section of Operation Iraqi Freedom, finishing up greater than 2,300 fight missions. Two months later, President George W. Bush famously declared throughout a go to to the Lincoln that main fight operations had ended. But the battle lasted, in varied methods, for nearly 9 years.
The provider — which many sailors name “Abe” — has deployed to the Middle East a number of occasions since 2019, principally as a consequence of tensions with Iran.
The Lincoln left San Diego on its newest deployment in November 2025. It was initially assigned to patrol the Indo-Pacific. President Donald Trump diverted the ship to the Middle East in mid-January as a consequence of rising tensions with Iran, which has refused to desert its nuclear weapons program.
