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Topic: Naval Warfare Blog Brand: The Buzz Region: Americas, and Asia Tags: Aircraft Carriers, Nimitz-Class Carriers, Ships, Supercarriers, United States, US Navy, USS Abraham Lincoln, and USS Carl Vinson America’s Supercarriers Are Back in Force in the Pacific December 16, 2025 By: Maya Carlin
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Port calls in the Indo-Pacific region support the Navy’s mission readiness and capabilities.
CVN-72 arrived in Guam for a scheduled port call last week, representing the second American supercarrier now deployed to the Western Pacific. Accompanied by guided-missile destroyers USS Spruance, USS Frank E. Peterson Jr., and USS Michael Murphy, USS Abraham Lincoln made a pit stop at the island roughly three weeks after pulling out of its homeport in San Diego. “Our Strike Group presence in 7th Fleet waters demonstrates our commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said Rear Adm. Todd Whalen, commander, Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group. “Port calls to strategic locations like Guam enhance our mission readiness and help us stay ready to execute maritime operations in theater.”
About the USS Abraham Lincoln
- Year introduced: 1989
- Number built: 1 out of 10 Nimitz-class carriers
- Length: 1,092 feet (332.8 meters)
- Beam: 252 ft (76.8 m) overall
- Displacement: 97,000 to over 100,000 tons
- Engines: Two Westinghouse A4W nuclear reactors and four steam turbines
- Top Speed: 30 knots
- Range: Unlimited (20-25 years of service life)
- Armaments: Multiple systems, including Phalanx CIWS, Sea Sparrow, and Rolling Airframe Missiles
- Crew: ~ 3,532 ship’s company and ~2,480 air wing
Serving as the flagship of Carrier Strike Group Three (CSG-3) with Carrier Air Wing Nine (CVN-9), USS Abraham Lincoln is currently underway on a scheduled deployment to the Western Pacific. The fifth Nimitz-class “supercarrier” to reach operational capacity with the Navy, CVN-72 sports all the latest and greatest armaments, tech, and sensors for a carrier of its size. Like her sister ships, USS Abraham Lincoln can carry roughly five dozen airframes, ranging from a variety of both rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft, with up to 90-something different types.
In order to successfully launch some of the service’s most advanced aircraft, including the fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II and F/A-18 Super Hornet E/Fs, the carrier is equipped with a steam catapult. This incredible take-off and landing mechanism allows these platforms to circumvent the need for longer runways. As explained by Popular Mechanics, “Steam is diverted from the ship’s boilers—steam boilers powered by the ship’s nuclear reactors—and piped up to just under the flight deck, where it is held and pressurized in special tanks. In the meantime, the front landing gear of a carrier aircraft is loaded onto a small, plate-sized shuttle. When the aircraft is ready for launch, the steam is suddenly released and, in a burst of power, accelerates the shuttle—and attached aircraft—down the flight deck to takeoff speeds.”
While the US Navy’s carriers typically follow the service’s Optimized Fleet Response Plan (OFRP), which consists of a 36-month schedule of maintenance, training, and deployment, CVN-72 is back out at sea following a 162-day tour one year ago. Last year, another Nimitz-class carrier also broke from this protocol. USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) ended a nearly five-month-long deployment in early 2023 and again left port for a nine-month-long follow-on tour less than one year later. The ramp-up in geopolitical tensions in the South China Sea and Red Sea has certainly contributed to this increased carrier presence in recent years.
About the Author: Maya Carlin
Maya Carlin, national security writer with The National Interest, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has over 1,000 articles published over the last several years on various defense issues. Carlin has bylines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin.
Image: Shutterstock.com / Satoshi Mizushima
The post America’s Supercarriers Are Back in Force in the Pacific appeared first on The National Interest.
Источник: nationalinterest.org