What happened to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln?

The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is the fifth aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class, built at Newport News and delivered to the US Navy in 1989. Between 2013 and 2017 it underwent its Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH), a four-year, more than $2.5 billion process in which both nuclear reactors were refueled and the catapults, flight deck, combat systems and habitability spaces were renewed, giving it the capability to operate the F-35C. When it left the shipyard it was, in practice, a new ship with about 25 more years of service life ahead of it.

Since then it has been one of the most active carriers in the Pacific Fleet. Between 2019 and 2020 it completed a 295-day deployment, the longest for a US carrier since Vietnam, which included a change of home port from Norfolk to San Diego. In 2022 it embarked the Marine Corps' first carrier-deployed F-35C squadron, and in November 2024 its F-35Cs carried out that variant's first combat strike, against Houthi targets in Yemen. During that campaign the Houthis claimed on several occasions to have hit the Lincoln with missiles and drones; the US Navy never reported any damage, and the ship returned to San Diego undamaged in December 2024.

The carrier remains in active service with its strike group and embarked air wing, made up of F/A-18E/F, F-35C, EA-18G, E-2D aircraft and MH-60 helicopters. With the RCOH already completed, its retirement is planned for the late 2030s, when a Ford-class ship will replace it. Any report of it being sunk or badly damaged comes from adversary propaganda, not from verifiable sources.