The aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln’s supply problems began soon after the first day of the war, as Iranian missiles and attack drones fell on a Navy base in Bahrain. The Iranian attack, retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli assault on Tehran, destroyed much of the base. And as it went up in smoke, so did a major logistics hub that the Navy has relied on for decades. The Navy needed a Plan B to continue feeding the sailors working around the clock to keep warplanes flying strike missions, and later to maintain a blockade of Iran’s ports. With the threat of Iranian attacks at other ports in the region, the Pentagon looked to a base under British command on the island of Diego Garcia as its supply hub, which is south of the Maldives and roughly 2,200 miles from where two aircraft carrier strike groups have been operating in the Gulf of Oman. The loss of the hub in Bahrain has contributed to a host of reported problems on carriers supporting operations against Iran, as Democratic senators raise concerns about the Lincoln’s 5,000 sailors and their nearly nine-month deployment.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, said in a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the reported problems included shortages of basic supplies and the deteriorating mental health of its crew members. On Friday at a military air base in Maryland, Mr. Trump dismissed those concerns. “That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another, very similar, ship,” he said. The Lincoln’s replacement is the Japan-based carrier U.S.S. George Washington, which earlier this week was heading west through the Strait of Malacca in Indonesian waters en route to the Middle East. Another carrier, the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush, has been operating in the Middle East for months since deploying from Norfolk on March 31. When asked if the carrier deployments were too long, the president said, “No, no, no, not nearly long enough.”

Mr. Hegseth had a similar response on Thursday when a reporter asked how long the United States could maintain its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. “We can hold it as long as we need to, indefinitely,” he replied.

guy who runs out of steam in 10 seconds of fighting: “no dude I could totally keep bobbing and weaving around here all day”

At the war’s outset, Keir Starmer, then the British prime minister, denied the Pentagon access to Diego Garcia for use in the operation against Iran. That decision drew Mr. Trump’s ire, and Mr. Starmer ultimately relented on March 1, granting the U.S. military access to the island for what he described as a “specific and limited defensive purpose.”

imagine how quickly the US empire would basically disintegrate if any of these vassal fucks grew a spine

A U.S. military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive logistics, said the Navy began using Diego Garcia as the main shipment point shortly after the Navy’s base in Bahrain was heavily damaged. The use of Diego Garcia as the Navy’s new logistics hub may explain why Iran fired two medium-range ballistic missiles at the island on March 20. One of the missiles fell into the Indian Ocean short of its target. A Navy warship shot down the other.

The San Diego-based Lincoln has been at sea for nearly nine months without what the Navy calls a “liberty port” — where sailors can get off the ship for a few days. Bahrain is one of the two ports where U.S. aircraft carriers in the region have typically moored so their crews can get some downtime. The other, the Emirati port of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman, is also well within the range of Iranian missiles.

whoopsie!

The Trump administration relied on yet another carrier, the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, in the Caribbean for its pressure campaign against Venezuela and later extended its deployment to the Middle East to launch airstrikes against Iran. So far the war has seen the commitment of a significant portion of the Navy’s fleet of aircraft carriers, which will go down to 10 with the expected retirement of U.S.S. Nimitz next year. While six months is the typical length of a Navy deployment at sea in peacetime, some carriers have done far longer stretches following the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Ford’s 326-day deployment, however, broke the record for the longest by a carrier since the Vietnam War. But in that war, carriers assigned to Yankee Station, a section of the Pacific off the coast of Vietnam, would often head to the Navy base at Subic Bay, Philippines — a short two-day transit away — where sailors could take a break from running nonstop flight operations and the ship could load up on ordnance, food, fuel and other necessary supplies. By tradition and Navy regulation, the commanding officer of a warship can request a “beer day” for their crews when they have been at sea for 45 straight days or longer. Given the Lincoln’s time at sea, the crew would have been eligible for five beer days already. A spokesman for the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which covers naval operations in region and would authorize beer days, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday about whether any of the ships participating in the Iran war had requested them. In an interview, Representative Mike Levin, Democrat of California, said that his constituents included sailors aboard the Lincoln, and that their family members had reached out to express their concerns about the deployment. “It gets back to that big picture, which is: What is the mission here?” Mr. Levin said. “That’s what the families want to know.”

Thompson’s family issued a rare public statement I’m not writing / pasting their boo hoo drivel…

Mangione faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and prosecutors suggested that his sentencing range under federal guidelines would be 24 to 30 years in prison. Prosecutors later clarified that they would be recommending life in prison, the steepest sentence available.

He will be sentenced at a separate hearing Dec. 18 and the final sentence will be determined by the judge who has full discretion.

His federal court guilty plea is expected to kick off a double jeopardy fight in state court where he still faces murder charges and the possibility of life in prison. Mangione’s defense is expected to argue that the cases cover the same alleged conduct and that proceeding with a state court trial would amount to a legal violation.

Following the guilty plea, Mangione’s lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said, “We just filed our motion in state court explaining why the state charges must be dismissed under New York’s double jeopardy protections.”

She also discussed Mangione’s rationale.

“As Luigi explained in court today, he endured years of severe debilitating pain following a broken back while struggling to navigate our healthcare and health insurance systems,” Friedman Agnifilo said.

“He believed that the system had failed him and destroyed his life,” the attorney added.

The upcoming double jeopardy fight could stall proceedings in New York Supreme Court where he’s set to stand trial Sept. 8. It could also lead to litigation in appeals court.

In court, Mangione directly answered a standard set of questions from U.S. District Court Judge Margaret Garnett. He said “yes” to whether he understood his right to a jury trial. He also confirmed that he knew he would lose the right to vote, own a firearm and would no longer be eligible to serve on a jury.

He also said he had never been treated for mental illness and that he was clear-headed but that he had taken a sleep drug in recent days.

Thompson’s family arrived blah blah  …and executives from UnitedHealthcare. blah blah blah.

Fervent followers of Mangione are believed blah blah blah …

While the defendant pled guilty, our office does not have a plea agreement with him,” McDonald said outside the courthouse after Mangione’s plea. “Instead, he pled open, which means he pled guilty to all pending counts in the indictment. There are no accommodations or concessions, and we are free to seek the maximum penalty under the law.”

“The result achieved today now allows our office to seek the maximum penalty allowed, life imprisonment, which, as I’ve conveyed to Mr. Thompson’s family, is what we intend to seek,” McDonald added.

Mangione was charged with two federal counts — interstate stalking resulting in death and stalking through use of interstate facilities resulting in death. The charges carry a maximum penalty of life in prison and are separate from the state allegations, which include second-degree murder and firearms crimes.

The brazen bull that is Thompson — blah blah blah - led the nation’s largest healthcare insurer — put a spotlight on the country’s health insurance industry and widespread frustration over denied claims.

I am not going to include the patronizing poor family who got rich of systemic and deliberate mass murder and tourture of Americans via Thompon’s porky policies as they mourn on mountains of blood money.

After reportedly losing dozens of MQ-9 Reaper drones while battling Iran, the Air Force on Friday confirmed to TWZ that it is planning to purchase an undisclosed number of unused ones from General Atomics, who made the aircraft. The company, however, said it has less than 10 of these drones to offer, and it remains unclear where else the Air Force can find more. All of this continues to raise serious questions about the Air Force’s near-term ability to plug gaps left by the losses fighting against Iran and in other recent operations in and around the Middle East. The downed Reapers have a reported combined value of about $1 billion. Furthermore, despite the top Air Force officer recently praising Reaper as “perhaps the most valuable player” in the air war against Iran, the aircraft have been in the crosshairs of service officials. They have openly questioned the drone’s survivability and, by extension, general value in future operations. The Air Force has made several half-hearted efforts, without success, to find a successor. It is now in the early stages of a new attempt at acquiring an “MQ-9 Next.” You can read more about that effort in our story here.

It will be years, if ever, before “MQ-9 Next” comes online. Meanwhile, the search is on for existing replacements. “The USAF intends to purchase several unused MQ-9A Block 5 from GA-ASI [General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.],” a spokesperson for the service told TWZ today. “A number of MQ-9A Block 5 aircraft were manufactured based on forecasted purchases for other customers but are no longer needed. The available aircraft are currently GA-ASI owned aircraft.” “The USAF has received funds to begin the acquisition process,” they added. The Air Force was responding to our questions about congressional testimony from a top officer highlighting the service’s plans to backfill the combat losses. “We’re looking at options to buy back as many of the MQ-9As as we possibly can right now,” Air Force Lt. Gen. David Tabor, Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs, had told members of Congress at a hearing back on May 13. “So there’s a bit of a short-term effort to buy back things immediately, in this fiscal year.” Tabor also said at that time that the Air Force’s total MQ-9A fleet had shrunk to 135 aircraft. Official budget documents say the Air Force had 165 Reapers in inventory as of the start of Fiscal Year 2026, which began on October 1 of last year. This had already marked a significant year-over-year decrease, down from 231 MQ-9As at the beginning of Fiscal Year 2025.

Despite Air Force needs, General Atomics told us the number of available Reapers is in short supply. “Between parts in stock for new builds, and company-owned Reapers with some number of flight hours on them, there are less than 10 total ‘new’ MQ-9As available to any customers anywhere in the world,” General Atomics spokesperson C. Mark Brinkley told TWZ earlier this week. “There are some number of decommissioned Reapers out there, and some number of those could potentially be brought back into service.” One place the Air Force won’t be able to find any Reapers is in storage. “The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (The Boneyard) has zero MQ-9s in storage nor have they ever regenerated a MQ-9 back into service,” the spokesperson told us. The MQ-9A is out of production. General Atomics has moved on to the MQ-9B, and currently offers those drones in multiple configurations. Though an evolution of the original Reaper, the core B model design differs in significant ways from its predecessor. Any new Air Force purchases of drones in this broader family would have to be of the B model and worked into the existing production schedule.

How many MQ-9As the Air Force has lost in operations in and around the Middle East since January 2025 is unclear, but is understood to be substantial. As of May, “nearly 30 MQ-9 Reapers have been lost in the course” of Operation Epic Fury against Iran, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported, citing “people familiar with the matter.” This is on top of dozens of Reapers reportedly downed while conducting operations targeting Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen in the past year or so. At the hearing last month, Tabor did not provide any official accounting of Reaper losses, but did acknowledge that “we are concerned about how they’ve attrited.” In another effort to bolster the supply of operational Reapers, the Air Force told us that while it never regenerated MQ-1 Predator drones back into service, it was repurposing parts from these aircraft that the service stopped using in 2020. There were dozens on hand after they were retired. More than 50 were sent to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) “and heavily cannibalized for spare parts for the MQ-9 aircraft,” the spokesperson told us. Questions about the status of the MQ-1 fleet arose last week after U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) acknowledged the loss of an “MQ-1” drone to Iranian fire. This has led many to question whether American forces are flying the venerable Predator again as a result of the Reaper losses. At the time, the Air Force declined to say if it lost any of theirs and referred us to CENTCOM, which declined comment. However, on Friday, the Air Force told us that in addition to the Predators being used for parts, 20 had been transferred to the Navy. We reached out to them for comment.

As we previously noted, it is also very possible, if not likely, that the uncrewed aircraft in question was an MQ-1C Gray Eagle, a related but different design still in active U.S. Army service. You can read more about this event in our original story here. At the time of the incident, CENTCOM declined to tell us which variant of the MQ-1 was lost. Regardless, the Air Force’s mad scramble to find additional Reapers highlights the value of having a high-flying, long-loitering drone that can gather intelligence and fire off munitions, no matter how slow it flies.