The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to San Diego this week after a 321-day deployment — 286 of those days consecutively at sea without a single port call, a modern-day record for a carrier. The ship left homeport in November 2025 for what was meant to be a routine cruise and was still deployed when Operation Epic Fury opened the Iran war at the end of February. The figures in this story come from the Navy itself, as compiled by Business Insider — which means the combat numbers are the service’s own accounting, reported after the fact, not independently verified.
40 days of Epic Fury
The strike group’s Carrier Air Wing 9 — nine squadrons built around F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, F-35C stealth fighters and EA-18G Growler electronic-attack jets — flew nearly 4,000 combat flights during the 40-day operation, close to 100 per day. It launched 1,499 precision munitions delivering more than 1.37 million pounds of ordnance — an average of about 914 pounds per weapon — against targets the Navy lists as missile sites, defense production facilities, military infrastructure and Iranian naval capabilities. The Navy says the mixed fourth- and fifth-generation wing validated its “Air Wing of the Future” concept in real combat; that is the service grading its own homework, but the sortie and tonnage figures at least are countable.
The full cruise, by the gallon
Across the whole deployment the air wing flew 14,037 sorties totalling 31,460 flight hours — about 2.2 hours per sortie — on an estimated 20.5 million gallons of aviation fuel, roughly 1,460 gallons per sortie. After the April ceasefire ended Epic Fury, the strike group supported the Navy’s blockade of Iran, struck Iranian coastal defenses and missile sites when Tehran began hitting commercial shipping, then backed a second blockade before heading home. The Lincoln logged more than 93,000 nautical miles in 321 days — about 290 miles a day, an average near 12 knots for a nuclear-powered ship capable of more than 30 — sustained by 72 at-sea replenishments, one roughly every four and a half days. That resupply tempo proved to be the load-bearing wall: multiple reports describe logistical strain from the war worsening conditions aboard. The strike group, which included three guided-missile destroyers, received the Presidential Unit Citation, one of the military’s highest unit awards.
The other ledger
A separate set of numbers did not appear in the deployment announcement. In written responses to Congress late last month, obtained by Business Insider, Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao disclosed eight suicide attempts by sailors assigned to the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, with multiple sailors attempting to jump overboard. There were no completed suicides. Cao wrote that “the men and women of Carrier Strike Group THREE have demonstrated exceptional resolve under demanding conditions” and that “operational decisions to extend deployments are never made lightly.” Eight attempts in one strike group over 321 days is the figure that converts “demanding conditions” from a citation phrase into a headcount.
The Navy says it is adjusting: loading carriers with more supplies so a strike group can stay self-sufficient when logistics come under stress, adding quality-of-life improvements, and keeping crews better connected to families. Those are admissions, dressed as lessons, that the deployed force ran low on exactly those things. The pressure has not ended with the Lincoln’s homecoming — the U.S. sent another carrier and 10,000 troops toward the Persian Gulf earlier this month as the Iran war’s costs keep compounding. The number to watch is the next carrier’s deployment length: whether 321 days is treated as a record to be avoided or as the new baseline.