Photos Show US Aircraft Carrier Leaving West Pacific Amid Iran Tensions

By Ryan Chan

The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has been spotted departing the western Pacific for a possible deployment to the Middle East amid tensions with Iran.

Newsweek has contacted the U.S. Defense Department for comment by email. Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Why It Matters

The U.S. has closely monitored Iranian anti-government protests, in which thousands have reportedly been killed. President Donald Trump has called for regime change and, according to reports, ordered the military to ready assets for a potential strike on Iran.

The repositioning of the Abraham Lincoln, a U.S. West Coast-based warship deployed last November for a scheduled Pacific mission, marks the third time a U.S. aircraft carrier has been rerouted to the Middle East over the past year amid regional tensions.

However, the redeployment could come at the expense of U.S. naval strength in the Pacific, where it seeks to keep China at bay. The East Asian power operates the world's largest warship fleet by hull count, including three aircraft carriers.

What To Know

Imagery shared by ship spotters in Singapore shows the Abraham Lincoln sailing past the Southeast Asian country on Sunday under the cover of darkness as it left the South China Sea and entered the Strait of Malacca, which links the Indian Ocean to the west with the Pacific Ocean to the east.

Data captured by the ship-tracking online service MarineTraffic shows the U.S. aircraft carrier transiting the Strait of Malacca on a northwest course, reaching waters near the eastern Indian Ocean north of Indonesia's Sumatra Island on Tuesday.

Serving as the flagship of a carrier strike group, the Abraham Lincoln was deployed with the destroyers USS Spruance, USS Michael Murphy and USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., according to a U.S. Navy release last December when the flotilla visited Guam.

Prior to its transit toward the Middle East, the Abraham Lincoln operated in the South China Sea with embarked F-35C stealth fighter jets and conducted live-fire drills to test its defensive systems as part of patrols in the Indo-Pacific region to "deter aggression."

Only two U.S. aircraft carriers are currently deployed, the U.S. Naval Institute News reported. Apart from the Abraham Lincoln, the other is the USS Gerald R. Ford in the Caribbean, as part of an enhanced U.S. military presence.

The departure of the Abraham Lincoln left the USS George Washington, which has been homeported in Japan since November 2024, as the only U.S. aircraft carrier stationed in the western Pacific. However, the report noted, the vessel is undergoing maintenance.

The U.S. "aircraft carrier gap" near China could be partly filled by a smaller vessel, the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli, forward-deployed in Japan and capable of operating F-35B jets. Photos released by the U.S. Navy show the vessel conducting "routine operations" at an undisclosed location within the 7th Fleet area of operations on Sunday.

The U.S. 7th Fleet is tasked with naval operations across the western Pacific and Indian Ocean to ensure the Indo-Pacific region remains free and open, according to the Navy.

The U.S. Navy has also deployed at least three destroyers in the Middle East—USS Roosevelt in the Red Sea, USS Mitscher in the Gulf of Oman and USS McFaul in the Persian Gulf, according to the U.S. Naval Institute News and officially released images.

What People Are Saying

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said: "Colleagues, let me be clear: President Trump is a man of action. Not endless talk like we see at the United Nations. He has made it clear all options are on the table to stop the slaughter—and no one should know that better than the leadership of the Iranian regime."

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a post on X: "The US had made extensive preparations to orchestrate this sedition. This sedition was a prelude to even bigger schemes. The Iranian nation defeated the US."

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said: "Any aggression against the supreme leader of our country is tantamount to full-scale war against the Iranian nation."

What Happens Next

It remains unclear when the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group will be near Iran after transiting westward across the Indian Ocean. The U.S. military may further bolster both its offensive and defensive capabilities in the Middle East in the coming days.