Navy Planning for Extended Carrier Deployments as Iran Conflict Continues, CNO, MCPON Say

Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) transits the Pacific Ocean, June 22, 2026. US Navy photo NAVAL SUPPORT ACTIVITY HAMPTON ROADS, Va. — Families of sailors assigned to the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group are already preparing for a deployment that will last more than seven months as the U.S. conflict with Iran continues.

When USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), its escorts and the embarked Carrier Air Wing 11 leave from San Diego in the coming weeks, the strike group is expected to move to U.S. Central Command to relieve the Japan-based USS George Washington (CVN-73), which entered U.S. 5th Fleet last week. Since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28, the U.S. has maintained a carrier presence in the Arabian Sea, launching strike missions over Iran and enforcing a subsequent naval blockade of Tehran.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman, each one year into the job, told reporters Wednesday that this commitment shows no signs of stopping and the service is doing what it can to ease the pressure on deployed sailors and their families facing the longest deployments in decades.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman meet with sailors on board USS Nimitz (CVN-68) and USS James E. Williams (DDG-95)at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Aug. 26, 2026. US Navy photo “We’ve been in conflict pretty much the whole time I’ve been in the seat, and that’s certainly stressed the force,” Caudle said. “I’m trying to work with my chain of command to put the extension process in a way that gives more certainty for planning … If we know we’re going into harm’s way, we should be able to project with a little bit more fidelity how long the carrier and the strike group is going to stay on station. We do these extensions in little chunks, and the families don’t see any endpoint so they can plan their own lives. That creates a lot of stress for sailors.”

Perryman said Theodore Roosevelt families are already planning for their loved one to be away from home for more than seven months.

“[Sailors] will go do really hard things for me without really batting an eye because they like that part of it. But we do have to be able, when possible, to stick to schedules and be very honest, like we are with Roosevelt,” Perryman said. “They know they’re going to be there longer than seven months. Their [commanding officer] is giving them eight months to plan on.”

The Navy already recorded the longest deployment since the Cold War when USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) returned from a record-breaking 326-day deployment in May. Meanwhile, USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is on track to come in just behind Ford with a more than 300-day deployment. Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel and the subsequent threat to commercial shipping from Houthi forces in Yemen, carrier deployments have averaged 8.5 months, according to the USNI News carrier deployment database.

“I would prefer, you know, seven-month deployments. I typically am not a big fan of extensions, and I push back hard on that. But the enemy gets a vote,” Caudle said.

U.S. Sailors direct an F/A-18F Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 41, on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) during Operation Epic Fury, March. 17, 2026. U.S. Navy Photo While Ford’s deployment was almost one year, the time was broken up with several port visits in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean seas. That wasn’t an option for the crew of Abraham Lincoln, which spent eight-and-a-half months without a port call.

“That fundamentally has made that a better experience for [Ford] sailors than the Abe’s experience,” Caudle said. “It’s not the operations – they’re nearly identical in the combat sortie process that they were conducting. It’s really the port calls and the ability to reset and take a knee.”

Learning from Abraham Lincoln’s deployment, the Navy established a logistics chain to sustain two carrier strike groups on station in the Arabian Sea.

“There was a period of time in the early stages where we had to actually get the combat logistics force train coming out of Diego Garcia and parts moving from Singapore, parts moving from Japan and the Philippines and from the [U.S], getting that process in place so that we were really replenishing at sea in an effective and systematic way. I think we have got that cracked now…Because I’ve got the combat logistics force treadmill, as I call it, now in a better place for resupply than some of the challenges that we saw early on with Abraham Lincoln that I don’t think we’ll see again,” Caudle said.

A sailor participates in a replenishment-at-sea evolution aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN-73) in the Arabian Sea, Aug. 22, 2026. US Navy photo Caudle is now working with U.S. 5th Fleet commander Vice Adm. Curt Renshaw to identify times and places for carriers deployed to the Arabian Sea to have port calls. The service is considering places in Africa, India and as far away as Singapore for the strike groups to take a break.

Meanwhile, the Navy is waiting for Congress to pass a supplemental funding bill to make up for the funding pulled from the operations and maintenance account for the conflict with Iran.

“The Fiscal Year [20]26 budget did not have Epic Fury baked into it. So, there’s a supplemental out there and that number keeps growing, but for me that’s probably between $6-8 billion in the total Department of War supplemental that I need to be whole and solvent for [FY] 26,” Caudle said.

The ongoing Middle East conflict also comes as the Navy is still set on expanding operations in the Western Pacific to meet the increasing influence of Chinese forces.

“The Pacific by its very nature of its size just mathematically requires more force,” Caudle said. “If it doesn’t come from the forward-deployed naval forces, it just requires me to have more.”