Overview
- U.S. Navy imagery shows the carrier firing its Phalanx Close-In Weapon System on January 8 during live-fire training in the South China Sea.
- The strike group conducted a replenishment-at-sea on January 7 with USNS Cesar Chavez, followed by ongoing flight operations and readiness drills.
- USS Abraham Lincoln is deployed with Carrier Air Wing 3 and is escorted by destroyers USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., USS Spruance, and USS Michael Murphy.
- The carrier left San Diego on November 24, stopped in Guam in mid-December, and has operated in the South China Sea since at least December 26.
- China held large-scale exercises encircling Taiwan on December 29–30, while U.S. 7th Fleet officials describe the Lincoln’s activities as routine; separate imagery shows USS George Washington in port at Yokosuka.