7 OCT 26 SITREP

• The USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group prepared to return to its home port in San Diego after departing in November 2025 and spending 321 days at sea, with its deployment extended two times and its crew enduring 265 continuous days without a port call while conducting operations connected to the Iran conflict.
• Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told the sailors that President Donald Trump had full faith in their mission and credited the strike group with more than 10,000 sorties, 23,000 combat flight hours, almost 4,000 combat sorties, approximately 1.5 million pounds of ordnance dropped, and 160 consecutive hours of combat flight operations without a casualty or flight mishap.
• The Presidential Unit Citation awarded to the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and Carrier Strike Group three covered extraordinary heroism against enemy forces from February 28 through August 22 this year, when the strike group conducted 40 days of combat operations and maintained an ironclad maritime blockade against Iran in support of Operation Epic Fury.
• The Presidential Unit Citation credited the strike group with executing 3,693 combat sorties, delivering 1.37 million pounds of ordnance, launching 450 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, shooting down 77 one-way attack unmanned aerial systems, destroying 64 Iranian warships and 21 anti-ship cruise missiles, and defending against four fast-attack craft and explosive-carrying vessels.

• U.S. forces cleared most of the sea mines affecting the Strait of Hormuz and restored traffic through the waterway, allowing large oil tankers to move through the strait to meet global demand after Iran had used cheap drones and sea mines during the conflict.
• The military ouster of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela could produce more favorable U.S. relations with the new Venezuelan government, a more stable oil supply, and greater refinery access, while the reduction of Iran’s capabilities has also limited Iranian oil supplies to U.S. adversaries and money flowing to terrorism.
• Gasoline remained around $4 per gallon despite oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz, with refinery capacity identified as a reason increased crude-oil supply had not produced cheaper gasoline because the oil still had to be refined, while major oil and gas companies were called on to increase refining and avoid gouging Americans.
• Additional pressure on gasoline prices was attributed to closed refineries in California, the Biden administration selling nearly half of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve’s stated maximum capacity of approximately 700 million gallons without replenishing it, and Ukrainian attacks on Russian pipelines and natural-gas infrastructure during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which was identified as more responsible for oil-price spikes than the situation in Iran.

• A planned $6.6 billion defense shipyard involving Anduril and founder Palmer Luckey was presented as part of a broader U.S. naval shipbuilding expansion, with Anduril expected to build key Virginia-class submarine components for delivery to Norfolk and other shipyards requiring those components.
• Anduril’s broader defense manufacturing work included a low-cost cruise missile identified as the LCCM, with projected production of 7,000 missiles per year compared with approximately 900 per year from larger defense companies, while additional commercial sealift shipbuilding and shipyard announcements were expected.
• Autonomous shipbuilding efforts included vessels approximately 200 feet long that could carry four to six containers and provide sealift for aircraft fuel, diesel fuel, bombs, and other supplies required by aircraft carriers and U.S. bombers operating from locations including Diego Garcia and RAF Fairford.
• Expanded shipyards and autonomous sealift networks were connected to U.S. requirements in the Indo-Pacific as China expands its aircraft carriers, battle groups, and nuclear forces, with increased American shipbuilding capacity presented as necessary to support maritime logistics and deter China as a peer competitor.