Investing.com - The USS Abraham Lincoln has been at sea for 265 days as of Thursday, the longest carrier deployment in recent memory, with more than 200 consecutive days without a standard port call, as the U.S. Navy prepares to rotate in a replacement.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the USS George Washington, based in Japan, is heading to the Middle East to relieve the Lincoln as part of a previously scheduled rotation. The George Washington transited the Strait of Malacca alongside guided-missile destroyers this week, according to open-source tracking data cited by the Journal.

The Lincoln departed San Diego on November 21, 2025 for a routine Pacific deployment before being redirected to the Middle East in January. The carrier and its air wing played a central role in Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. bombing campaign against Iran that began February 28, and has since participated in the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports that began April 13. The deployment, originally expected to end in May, has been extended at least twice with no publicly announced return date.

The human toll of that extended timeline has drawn increasingly sharp scrutiny from Congress. Multiple sailors aboard the Lincoln have attempted to jump overboard. A U.S. official confirmed to CNN that one sailor went overboard last month and was quickly rescued, while Military Times and Stars and Stripes separately reported additional attempts, citing interviews with sailors and family members.

Annabelle Loma, wife of a sailor on the Lincoln who attempted to go overboard, told Military Times: "He’s scared. He thinks he’ll get a dishonorable discharge, and just because he was burnt out, his 13-year career is ruined, just like that. That’s not fair, that’s not right. That’s not what he should be worrying about right now."

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao demanding written answers by August 27, citing "widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns, and disruptions in the mail system, which have caused many care packages in route to the ship to be lost in transit for months." Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) said in a CNN interview Thursday that he also plans to seek an update from the Pentagon. "At the end of the day, we know that those who are serving have to have comfort knowing that they’re getting properly taken care of," Stutzman said.

The Navy pushed back on the most alarming characterizations. The service told CNN it "has not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship" and that religious, medical, and mental health professionals are available to the crew. Defense Secretary Hegseth had earlier dismissed initial reports of poor conditions as "fake news" when they first surfaced in April.

The rotation was in the works before the living-conditions concerns became public, a U.S. official told the Journal, framing the move as operational rather than remedial. At an August 6 town hall at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told roughly 200 family members that a relief carrier strike group was being prepared, though he declined to provide a return date for the Lincoln, citing operational security. Earlier reporting from MS Now cited the USS Theodore Roosevelt as the relief ship; the Journal now identifies the USS George Washington.