“Ten and a half months is a significant amount of time away from home. The mission required that sacrifice, but it does not make up for missed birthdays, anniversaries and other important family milestones,” Lt. Cmdr. Tyler Barker, USS Abraham Lincoln’s public affairs officer, said during a news conference Thursday. “There are 122 new dads that are going to walk off the ship today. From the air wing and from my ship, they’re waiting to meet their children for the very first time.”

As thousands of sailors poured off the aircraft carrier to thunderous cheers and distant cowbell clangs, some of the first to touch solid ground were those 122 sailors, making a beeline to embrace the babies they had “met” via screens but never physically touched.

Among those sailors was Brent Ledbetter, an air traffic control center officer, whose son was born shortly after the Lincoln’s Nov. 21, 2025, departure.

“I just want to hold him, play with him,” Ledbetter told NBC News. “He’s crawling around now, so I’m excited to chase him around the house and give him all the love that, that, you know — has been kind of withheld for the last 10 months. I’m so excited.”

According to the outlet, Ledbetter’s wife was also assigned to what would become a storied deployment, but the sailor had relieved his wife shortly before her birth due to Navy regulations that they can’t be on the ship at the same time. Ledbetter’s wife, also an air traffic controller, will now swap positions with the sailor and deploy, while he will stay home with their son.

Ledbetter has served in the U.S. Navy for 13 years and deployed two other times on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower; once to the Red Sea and another time, in 2020, was 206 days at sea, NBC News reported.

In November 2025, the Lincoln departed San Diego for a routine six-month deployment, which was extended twice after the U.S. jointly launched Operation Epic Fury with Israel on Feb. 28.

For Mackenzie Adkins, she and her husband Alex had planned to start their growing family around his deployment schedule, but the path to conceiving is often not linear. Adkins found herself giving birth 10 weeks ago — with Alex video-calling in.

“I’m feeling a little bit of everything,” Adkins told KFMB. “I’m excited above all else, just so ready to have my husband back, to have him finally meet his son. I’m nervous, just the excited nerves of, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s finally happening’ after we thought it was going to happen so many other times, but this is finally it, and so [I’m] extremely happy.

“We were ready to start our family, and so we took the original return home date and used that to plan the pregnancy, and with military life, things just happen,” she said. “And well, here we are 10 weeks later, and he’s finally going to get to meet his son.”

On Wednesday, as the Abraham Lincoln and elements of its carrier strike group neared the California coast, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the carrier strike group had been awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, the military’s highest unit-level valor award.

Hegseth announced the award to the 5,000 sailors aboard the Lincoln, citing the “historic mission” that included completing “3,693 combat flights, sinking 64 Iranian warships, launching 450 Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles and shooting down 77 one-way aerial attack drones.”

“Congratulations to @CNV_72 and all of CSG-3 on this well-earned Presidential Unit Citation for their extreme heroism over the last 10 months in defense of our homeland,” Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao wrote on social media.

That defense included 40 days in combat and an “ironclad maritime blockade against Iran in support of Operation Epic Fury,” according to the citation.

Hegseth, who visited the carrier one day prior to the ship reaching shore, announced the award to the 5,000 sailors aboard the Lincoln, citing the “historic mission” that included completing “3,693 combat flights, sinking 64 Iranian warships, launching 450 Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles and shooting down 77 one-way aerial attack drones.”

“You have changed the arc of history, ensuring that crazy people, theocrats, never get a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth said.

The first ship in Carrier Strike Group 3, destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., returned to Hawaii on Sept. 28, while the Lincoln continued to sail towards the California coast.

“Congratulations to @CNV_72 and all of CSG-3 on this well-earned Presidential Unit Citation for their extreme heroism over the last 10 months in defense of our homeland,” Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao wrote on social media.

That defense included 40 days in combat and an “ironclad maritime blockade against Iran in support of Operation Epic Fury,” according to the citation.

The increasingly long deployments of U.S. vessels — the USS Gerald R. Ford returned to its home port in May 2026 after a record 327-day deployment — have raised growing concerns regarding the demand of prolonged combat deployments.

Public concern over deteriorating mental health aboard the Abraham Lincoln and within the carrier group grew to a crescendo in mid-August, when Military Times reported that two sailors attempted to jump overboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. The carrier, at that time, had gone 265 consecutive days without a port call.

Cao confirmed on Sept. 22 that eight sailors aboard ships from the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide but also said that no sailor had died from the attempts.

“There were some in the media who wanted to mischaracterize your great success or characterize it as something else,” Hegseth said. “Some in the media … wanted to define your mission by that. Or make it seem that that was all that people should take away.”

Hegseth refuted that characterization, instead noting faces “beaming with pride” aboard the ship — “and rightfully so,” he added. “You’re a part of history.”

Ultimately, the aircraft carrier USS George Washington was sent to relieve the Lincoln, which left the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in late August. The carrier group made a brief port call in Thailand, then a logistics stop in Guam, before heading toward the coast of southern California.

“Early investment and a relentless focus on quality and execution have positioned us to now deliver seekers at unprecedented levels in the near-term, and we’re committed to building on that momentum,” Steve Parker, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, said in a release. “Our Boeing teammates could not be prouder of the role they play in protecting U.S. and allied service members, civilians and critical infrastructure worldwide.”

The agreement follows the framework deal that was announced in April. Production will be spread over seven years, matching Lockheed Martin’s push to surge production on the PAC-3 MSE all-up round.

Lockheed in January announced a seven-year framework agreement to increase annual PAC-3 interceptor production from approximately 600 to 2,000.

Work on the seekers began immediately, the company announced in April, and will be completed at Boeing’s facility in Huntsville, Alabama.

Boeing’s PAC-3 seekers work by identifying, tracking and knocking out a range of threats, from ballistic missiles and hypersonics to hostile air platforms.

Once the seeker identifies the target, the highly maneuverable interceptor, which uses a two-pulse solid rocket motor, engages and eliminates threats via direct body-to-body contact.

Monday’s announcement, meanwhile, comes as the U.S. military’s reliance on costly interceptors against cheap munitions, particularly those deployed by Iran during Operation Epic Fury, has come under increased scrutiny over the past eight months.

The announcement also follows a busy week for Boeing. Last Tuesday, the U.S. Navy selected the company to build its F/A-XX sixth-generation carrier-based fighter under a development contract worth more than $20 billion. The same day, the Air Force signed a $2.38 billion order for 22 more F-15EX Eagle II fighters.

Military Times reporter Michael Scanlon contributed to this report.

Since the rollout began in November 2025, the Navy has sought to provide free, high-speed Wi-Fi to all Navy-owned and -operated unaccompanied housing. Now, according to a Department of Defense release on Friday, 90% of those buildings are now online.

“Reliable connectivity is an important part of sustaining the force and ensuring sailors have the support they need to remain ready and resilient,” said Navy Vice Adm. Scott Gray, deputy chief of naval operations for sustainment. “This milestone demonstrates the Navy’s continued investment in the infrastructure and services that enable our people to focus on the mission, wherever they serve.”

According to the release, 865 of the 962 buildings now have free Wi-Fi.

The remaining 10% of unaccompanied housing facilities left to connect are in isolated regions, such as Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti and the Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia in the central Indian Ocean. According to the Navy, the remaining installations are scheduled for completion in fiscal 2027.

The program, a partnership between Commander, Navy Installations Command and the Navy Exchange Service Command, offers sailors “filtered free Wi-Fi and subsidized high-speed upgrades without long-term contracts or termination fees in full compliance with the Military Honor and Decency Act of 1996,” according to the release.

The quest to install free Wi-Fi in remote military barracks is part of a broader DoD initiative launched in September 2024 to help service members access email, banking, entertainment, online training, telehealth appointments, Military OneSource and military and family life counselors, a 2024 release reads.

“Every time we go and we visit barracks … one of the questions that I ask our soldiers, our airmen, our Marines, our guardians, whoever, in those barracks is, ‘If you could have 10 more square feet in your barracks room or free Wi-Fi, what would it be?’” said Brendan Owens, assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment. “No one is going to be surprised that a 19-year-old wants free Wi-Fi.”

The newest Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier completed acceptance sea trials in August, and the latest acceptance will allow the “ship and its crew to conduct at-sea testing and build underway proficiency while the shipbuilder completes final ship systems testing prior to formal delivery of the ship in Spring 2027,” according to a Navy release.

“Achieving preliminary acceptance marks a new phase for the ship and her crew, allowing them to get more water under the keel as they test and train underway,” Capt. Mark Johnson, the Navy’s Program Manager for Gerald R. Ford-Class New Construction, said in the release.

The new carrier, launched in October 2019 and christened the following month, was initially slated for delivery in July 2025, but Navy and congressionally mandated equipment changes caused years-long delays.

The latest setback was due “to support completion of Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) certification and continued Advanced Weapons Elevator (AWE) work,” according to the Navy’s fiscal 2026 budget documents.

Four remaining Advanced Weapons Elevators require testing, with JFK’s shipbuilder, Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of HII, to complete final ship systems testing before potentially turning the aircraft carrier over to the Navy next spring.

At 1,092 feet long and weighing 100,000 tons, the overall procurement cost for the vessel was to the tune of $13.2 billion, a December 2025 CRS report indicated.

The John F. Kennedy left Newport News, Virginia, on Tuesday to begin its transition to Naval Station Norfolk, according to a HII release.

“Achieving preliminary acceptance is another step toward ensuring the U.S. Navy has the aircraft carriers it needs to carry out the mission of defending our nation,” said Bryan Caccavale, NNS vice president of program management. “It is an honor to see Kennedy depart and begin integration into the fleet.”

The destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. left Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Dec. 1, spending over 106 days without a scheduled port call as it operated in the South China Sea in January before sailing to the Arabian Sea in support of U.S. Navy operations during Operation Epic Fury.

“This deployment challenged us in many ways and required every sailor to perform at their very best,” said Capt. Casey Mahon, commanding officer of the Frank E. Petersen Jr. “Despite the pressures and complexities of our missions, the crew rose to the occasion every time, ensuring the safety, security, and strategic interests of our nation. Most importantly, the crew never gave up on the ship and never gave up on their shipmates.”

Under Mahon, the Integrated Air and Missile Defense commander for the Abraham Lincoln strike group, the Frank E. Petersen Jr., provided ballistic missile defense for ships transiting in the contested waters of the Strait of Hormuz.

During its 10-month-long deployment, Frank E. Petersen Jr.’s crew conducted 45 replenishments-at-sea, sailed over 85,000 nautical miles and completed 1,094 hours of flight quarters, according to a Navy release.

The increasingly long deployments of U.S. vessels — the USS Gerald R. Ford returned to its home port in May 2026 after a record 327-day deployment — have raised growing concerns regarding the demand of prolonged combat deployments.

Public concern over deteriorating mental health aboard the Abraham Lincoln and within the carrier group grew to a crescendo in mid-August, when Military Times reported that two sailors attempted to jump overboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao confirmed on Sept. 22 that eight sailors aboard ships from the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide but also said that no sailor had died from the attempts.

During an August town hall meeting in San Diego, California, military family members expressed grave concerns to defense officials about the mental health of their loved ones aboard the Lincoln. They flagged food shortages, depleting sailor morale and worry over self-harm, as the ship approached nine months without a scheduled port call. The flagship ultimately went 264 days without a port call. The Abraham Lincoln is scheduled to return to its home port of San Diego.

According to Mahon, there were no reports of suicidal ideation among the Frank E. Petersen Jr.’s crew during its deployment.

“We certainly had some folks who maybe needed a bit more care than others, and we made sure they got that care,” he told Stars and Stripes on Monday.

“I think you can’t do a 10-month deployment like that without really having to really dive deep into the resiliency factor,” he added.

Riley Ceder contributed to this report.

Inked at $20 billion for the full-scale development phase, the contract, according to a Pentagon release, “procures multiple test aircraft for ground, airworthiness, systems, and weapons integration testing.”

“The F/A-XX is a critical pillar in our commitment to maintaining peace through strength,” Michael P. Duffey, under secretary of defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, said in the release. “F/A-XX will dominate contested airspace, extend operational reach, and deliver a decisive combat advantage for the warfighter.”

Equipped with an extended range to provide power projection from U.S. carriers, Boeing has promised that the F/A-XX will, crucially, be interoperable with both manned and unmanned platforms such as Collaborative Combat Aircraft.

“This achievement marks a new era for the U.S. Navy,” said acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao. “The Sixth-Generation fighter is a generational leap in air superiority and will provide the world’s best aviators with unparalleled capabilities to fight, win, and come home safe. We are excited to partner with Boeing, and for our warfighters to continue to dominate the skies and defeat our nation’s enemies.”

Boeing’s contract award marks another milestone victory for the company, which has now all but guaranteed its monopoly on sixth-generation fighters across the services.

In 2025, Boeing beat out Lockheed Martin for the contract to build the U.S. Air Force’s sixth-generation fighter under the Next Generation Air Dominance program, or NGAD.

That aircraft, since dubbed the F-47, has entered its engineering and manufacturing development phase, one service official announced in July, with first flights expected as early as 2028.

The Air Force at the time announced plans to purchase at least 185 of the next-gen fighters, a number designed to replace the F-22 Raptor fleet.

The F/A-XX program, meanwhile, which has yet to receive its official designation, has been the subject of funding disputes for years, with engineering and supply chain concerns prompting some Pentagon officials to push for delaying the program.

The carrier-based fighter jet is slated to anchor the Navy’s next-generation fighter fleet — operating alongside the F-35 — and is expected to replace the aging inventory of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers beginning in the 2030s.

“It’s an honor to be selected to produce the Navy’s first sixth^–generation platform,” Steve Parker, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, said in a release announcing the deal. “Backed by decades of work, bolstered by game-changing innovations and solidified by the investments we’ve made in new facilities uniquely suited to build multiple products with next-generation capabilities, our dedicated and talented team is ready to execute this critical program.”

The recent SINKEX blended the firepower of U.S. Task Force 65, Task Force 67, Task Force 68, Task Force 69 and Task Force 1060 alongside the Royal Navy and the U.S. Air Force.

The USS Klakring, an Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate — laid up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, since its decommissioning on March 22, 2013 — served as the target of the exercise.

Named for Rear Adm. Thomas B. Klakring, who was awarded three Navy Crosses as the commander of the submarine USS Guardfish during World War II, the USS Klakring entered the sea service on Aug. 20, 1983, and supported Operation Earnest Will to protect Kuwaiti oil tankers from Iranian attacks during the Iran-Iraq War.

The final blow to the USS Klakring on Sept. 25 came from the newly commissioned submarine USS Massachusetts, a nuclear-powered, Block IV Virginia-class fast-attack boat, which successfully struck and sank the decommissioned frigate with a Mk 48 Advanced Capability Torpedo.

“Atlantic Thunder demonstrates the unmatched lethality and interoperability of the United States and United Kingdom,” Capt. Kelechi Ndukwe, commander of U.S. Task Force 65, said in a release. “This sinking exercise not only validated the power behind U.S.-UK offensive weapons but delivers a clear message to adversaries that the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy remain a ready allied force.”

Led by the U.S. 6th Fleet in the North Atlantic, Exercise Atlantic Thunder 2026 came just days after the Royal Navy successfully launched a U.S. Navy Mk 48 Heavyweight Torpedo from a British Excalibur uncrewed underwater vehicle, or UUV, marking a significant step toward allied operational fleets of uncrewed vehicles.

The exercise highlighted capabilities within both the U.S. and U.K. fleets, with the guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Ignatius successfully inflicting maximum damage and range capability of an anti-surface variant of the Standard Missile 6 (SM 6), while the Royal Navy utilized its newest ship-busting missiles, the Naval Strike Missile and Sea Venom, per the release.

But for his owner and handler Sgt. Mollie Karazim, a religious affairs specialist, the transition was one befitting Axel’s soft, happy demeanor.

“Axel is not a tactical asset; he is a force multiplier by means of mental health and soldier readiness,” Karazim told Military Times. “He helps soldiers who are fighting wars sometimes silent and in their own heads by offering comfort to them. By being that icebreaker that allows the unit ministry team to be introduced and help. Dogs are absolutely incredible blessings and I’m so grateful to share him, and it makes me so proud to watch him work and put smiles on people’s faces.”

His deafness, Karazim added, is not a detraction but his superpower.

“I truly do think that his deafness has created a different kind of bond between the two of us,” she said. “I love how willing he is to learn. He always wants to learn. He always wants to be doing new things, experience new things.”

Before adopting Axel from DC DOGO Rescue, Karazim had been specifically seeking to rescue a deaf dog, having previously owned one without the gift of hearing.

“I really appreciate the bond that comes with a dog that cannot hear,” she added.

Adopted as a puppy, the now three-year-old Axel began training with Karazim from the jump and is now readying to deploy alongside Karazim, who has spent more than three years with the 1st Battalion, 125th Infantry Regiment, working alongside chaplains to support soldiers throughout the formation.

“I trained all the behaviors in him that I wanted and the things I wanted him to do,” she said. “I exposed him to all the things he was going to be exposed to — to a certain degree. … It sounds funny, like, ‘how do you expose a deaf dog to fireworks?’ But he needs to be exposed to all that stuff, because even though he can’t hear it, he can feel everything, and he needs to not be scared. He needs to trust me.”

But Axel’s deafness does have some advantages.

“He can just shut it down and take a nap in the middle of the office when it’s loud, and things are going on and banging, and he is just knocked out, snoring on the floor, you know? So I really do think that does help him in that sense,” Karazim noted.

Despite knowing she wanted to train Axel as a ministry therapy dog, the soldier had to bide her time to make sure it was the right fit.

Karazim immediately placed Axel on a regimented training schedule and waited… one year, two years — hoping that the years of training would make Axel blend seamlessly within her unit.

That wait paid off in spades earlier this year, when Axel began working alongside Karazim, riding in Humvees, taking in the sights from airplanes and running or rucking alongside soldiers of the battalion during PT tests.

“He ran the two-mile right with everyone, and I can 100% confidently say that everyone ran faster because of him. I know I did,” Karazim laughed.

“He just really loves it,” she continued. “And he knows that that’s his job now. He has his collar that has his name and his rank on it, and he knows that he only wears that when he goes to work. When he sees my uniform, he knows what it means. And when he has his collar, he knows what it means. He really is a different dog at work.”

Since then, Axel’s little black nose and impish, big smile have become a staple within the unit.

“He’ll go into the office and just wag his tail and put his head on you. Just that little bit of comfort to people is a game changer,” said Karzim. “So many times I’ve had people say, ‘Man, just having him walk in just made my whole day. I needed that so much.’ If there are people that he can sense need more time, he will stay in there, and they can just sit there and pet him and love on him.”

Trained as a therapy dog, Karazim developed a system of visual cues and hand signals to communicate with him that includes more than 50 commands and incorporates American Sign Language. And while he is very in tune with his owner, soldiers within the unit have begun learning ASL to communicate with him as well.

“If you watched me interact with him, you would have no idea that he’s deaf at all. And most people are shocked when I introduce him to people. I really do think that’s his superpower. I truly do. I think it makes him very special, and it just makes him more in tune with everybody’s emotions and that’s what makes him a special therapy dog.”

Axel is now preparing to deploy alongside Karazim and her unit, where he is set to circulate with her and other chaplains to meet with soldiers across the battalion.

“He’ll circulate with us, and he’ll travel wherever we go. People can request to talk to us; people request him all the time,” Karazim said.

“When you’re deployed,” she continued, “everything that you have, that sense of home, is taken away from you. This is why I wanted him to start working with us a year before we left so that he was integrated into the unit — that he knew this was his new normal, these were his people, and this was his job, and that people also had the opportunity to get to know him, so that when we do deploy, and we’re downrange, that he is that piece of home for people.”

The USS Chafee on Sept. 11 refueled the Unmanned Surface Vessel Seahawk, Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel, according to Navy photos released on Monday. The refueling of the uncrewed vessel, which requires onboarding personnel to the Seahawk, was the second time a U.S. Navy ship attempted an at-sea sustainment this year.

The astern refueling method was previously tested between Seahawk and oiler USNS Guadalupe in April, according to USNI.

The Seahawk joins the other MUSV, Sea Hunter, as the first autonomous medium unmanned surface vessels operated by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research.

The sea service is utilizing the “Sea Hunter and Seahawk as prototypes for research and experimentation. Major goals of research and experimentation efforts with Sea Hunter and Seahawk are to determine the most effective way to utilize USVs in operations and how to best integrate them into the Fleet,” according to the Navy.

The 145-ton Seahawk was built by the tech and defense company Leidos, before being transferred to the Navy in 2021 and used for testing across the Indo-Pacific.

Through its No Manning Required Ship — or NOMARS — program, DARPA is working to codify its USV refueling system that currently presents significant risk to sailors working to refuel it.

According to a 2024 DARPA report, “Requiring personnel on the USV for the operation adds significant constraints on USV design and operations, as the vessel must then be designed with considerations for safety of the humans on board, even if for a short period of time. It can also be risky and sometimes dangerous to transport personnel to a USV in rough seas or high winds.”

The latest at-sea refueling marks a significant step for the Navy as it works to rapidly expand its uncrewed surface vehicle fleet.

The Navy’s shipbuilding plan, released in May, requests funding for five unmanned and 34 manned vessels in Fiscal Year 2027. Over the next five years, it asks for 63 unmanned platforms and 122 manned ships, for a total of 299 manned battle-force ships and 83 unmanned vessels by FY 2031. It was the first time the Navy had included unmanned vessels in its future fleet projections.

Hope Hodge Seck contributed to this report.