The USS Abraham Lincoln is packing up and leaving San Diego, heading to a new homeport in Bremerton, Washington, where it is scheduled to undergo maintenance following one of the most grueling deployments in recent Navy history. The 36-year-old nuclear-powered carrier spent 321 days away from home, including a stretch of 265 consecutive days without a single port call, before finally returning to Naval Air Station North Island on October 8.
The U.S. Navy confirmed the change of station to Bremerton, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. The move is expected later in 2026, while questions about the maintenance availability and whether the carrier will return to San Diego remain open. The Navy said regularly scheduled depot-level maintenance maximizes a vessel's lifespan and keeps the fleet lethal, modern and ready, per the same report. Bremerton is home to the only shipyard on the West Coast capable of repairing, servicing and upgrading aircraft carriers, the paper notes.
A Deployment That Pushed the Crew to the Breaking Point
The Lincoln left San Diego in November 2025 expecting a routine seven-month Indo-Pacific deployment. Instead, the carrier was redirected to the Middle East in January 2026 amid rising tensions with Iran, and the ship went on to lead the air attack at the start of the U.S.-Iran war that February, the Union-Tribune reports. Iranian strikes damaged U.S. logistics centers in Bahrain, disrupting food and other supplies to the Lincoln and its escort ships, according to the same account.
What followed was a 265-day stretch without a port visit, the longest of its kind, and families of crew members said sailors were suffering enormous stress, with some attempting suicide. The Navy confirmed that eight sailors in the Lincoln carrier strike group had attempted suicide during the deployment, per the Union-Tribune's report. When the carrier finally made a port call in Thailand on September 2, it was visibly showing heavy rust across its hull.
Despite the toll on its crew, the deployment also produced a striking combat record. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth presented the Lincoln carrier strike group with the Presidential Unit Citation on October 7 for 40 days of combat operations during Operation Epic Fury against Iran, according to DefenseWarRoom. During that stretch, the strike group flew 3,693 combat missions, launched 450 Tomahawk missiles, shot down 77 drones and sank 64 Iranian warships, the outlet reports.
Relief in the Middle East, Then the Long Trip Home
The Japan-based USS George Washington relieved the Lincoln in the Middle East in August. The Lincoln's 265-day stretch at sea ended before its September 2 port call in Thailand, after which it began the transit back to San Diego, per DefenseWarRoom's reporting. More than 600 sailors and Marines manned the rails when the Lincoln returned to Naval Air Station North Island on October 8 and docked at Coronado, according to the Union-Tribune. Commander, Naval Air Forces officially announced the Bremerton relocation just 11 days later, on October 19, confirming the carrier's departure would come before the end of 2026.
Why Bremerton Is the Only Option
San Diego's naval piers can host carriers, but the city lacks dry docks capable of major hull and nuclear propulsion maintenance. Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton operates the only public dry dock on the West Coast built to accommodate nuclear-powered carriers, though the existing carrier dock dates to 1962 and cannot fully support Ford-class ships or meet current seismic standards, according to Ship Universe. That bottleneck is part of why the Navy issued a solicitation dated September 30 for a 10-year, $15 billion multi-award contract to build a new Multi-Mission Dry Dock and overhaul the shipyard's waterfront under the federal Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program, as Baird Maritime reported.
The shipyard has already been upgrading its aging docks. Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Northwest finished a $517 million seismic overhaul of Drydock 4 in August, installing 600 perimeter cable anchors to limit structural displacement during major earthquakes, according to WorkBoat, which noted the work was completed five months ahead of schedule using One Big Beautiful Bill Act funding. Puget Sound Naval Shipyard employs more than 14,000 civilian and military personnel, making Naval Base Kitsap the largest economic employer in Kitsap County, per the Puget Sound Regional Council.
A Return to Familiar Waters
For the Lincoln, the move is something of a homecoming. The carrier previously completed a major dry-dock overhaul at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in 1996, according to Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. It later moved to San Diego in January 2020, meaning the Lincoln had been based there for six years before this latest move, per the Union-Tribune. Commissioned in 1989, the more than 100,000-ton ship is a Nimitz-class carrier.
Bremerton is already home to the USS Ronald Reagan, which recently underwent maintenance there, the Union-Tribune notes.
Relocating the Crew and Their Families
Relocating a carrier's crew and families is a logistical operation.
