US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has praised the performance of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during US military operations against Iran.
Hegseth spoke about the carrier’s mission as the USS Abraham Lincoln prepares to return to the United States after a lengthy deployment in the Middle East. The carrier, which has around 5,000 personnel aboard, has been deployed since November 2025 and played a role in US military operations and the naval blockade of Iran.
According to published reports, aircraft based on the carrier carried out more than 10,000 sorties during the deployment and used more than 1.5 million pounds of munitions. The carrier also took part in air operations against targets linked to Iran and in countering maritime threats.
Reports say the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group also shot down more than 200 Iranian Revolutionary Guard drones during the conflict and carried out hundreds of air strikes.
However, the figure of 3,693 combat sorties and the claim that 64 Iranian warships were sunk, which have been attributed to Hegseth in some reports, could not be independently verified in reliable sources reviewed for this report. The figure of 64 in a US Navy report also refers to commercial vessels intercepted or turned back by US forces, rather than 64 Iranian warships.
