New carrier deploys to Middle East as USS Lincoln faces operational issues

In the contested waters of the Middle East, the USS Lincoln — a nuclear-powered carrier already stretched beyond its intended deployment — has encountered operational difficulties serious enough to require early relief. The Navy, unwilling to cede its continuous presence in the region, has redirected a second carrier to assume the mission. The episode is less a crisis than a quiet revelation: that the projection of power depends not only on the will to project it, but on the unglamorous machinery — literal and institutional — that makes such will possible.