Record-setting deployments keep coming, so do challenges for Navy and its sailors

While the higher operational tempo of the past year has stretched resources, the Navy has long dealt with too many jobs and not enough ships. Sailors assigned to the USS McFaul man the rails at the warship’s homecoming at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Oct. 23, 2026. (Pierce Luck/U.S. Navy) USS Gerald Ford was at sea for 326 days. USS Abraham Lincoln was gone 322 days, including 286 days without a port call. Both deployments topped the nine-month stint at sea in 2023-24 by USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. Deployments have grown longer, and often have been extended beyond original plans, because the Navy is involved in a series of international interventions — the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, patrolling the Caribbean and Pacific for drug and immigration efforts, and, most of all, the U.S.

and Israeli attacks on Iran that began Feb. 28. Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS McFaul briefly set a post-Vietnam War deployment record for a destroyer, 333 days, when it arrived at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Oct. 23. Out of a crew of about 300, 13 sailors met 13 babies born during the deployment. Soon after McFaul arrived home, Pacific Fleet reports said that Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Spruance was nearing San Diego after more than 340 days and counting. Officially, the Navy says