After leaving the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is now operating in the Philippine Sea as part of its return to the operational area of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, to which it was originally assigned. This report coincides with confirmation that a group of Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) ships was spotted by Japanese authorities transiting through the Miyako Strait to enter the Philippine Sea.
Approaching the five-month mark since its departure from Naval Station North Island last July, the USS Abraham Lincoln has participated in various exercises and activities across the Pacific. Notably, its most significant deployment was to the operational area of U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) as part of efforts to provide security for commercial vessels in the region, targeted by attacks carried out by Houthi rebels. It is worth noting that while the carrier operates within the Seventh Fleet in the Pacific, it was sent to the Middle East to support the presence of the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71).
Although its presence in USCENTCOM had been declared indefinite for several weeks due to regional instability following the attacks on Israel in October 2023, the USS Abraham Lincoln departed in mid-November. After a stop in Malaysia, it rendezvoused with a group of escorts — the destroyers USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG-121), USS Spruance (DDG-111), and USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112) — in the Strait of Malacca and the Singapore Strait to proceed to the South China Sea.
Now, with CVN-72 positioned in the Philippine Sea, the U.S. Navy has three aircraft carriers in the Pacific: the USS George Washington (CVN-73), currently in Yokosuka, Japan, and the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), deployed near the Hawaiian Islands.
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