Navy supply strain and the fight over the Strait of Hormuz

Aug 20, 2026

Oil is still moving out of the Persian Gulf at well below pre-war levels, and the US Navy enforcing the blockade is running itself ragged — bad for oil markets, worse for sailors.

  • Iranian attacks are hitting ships almost daily, and three Chinese tankers just turned around rather than run the strait.
  • Oil coming out of the region is roughly a third below where it was before the war, and the flow is jerky rather than steady.
  • Iran is losing ground in the strait itself, mostly because the US blockade and sanction threats scared off the ships using the Iranian channel.
  • With Gulf bases abandoned, the Navy now supplies its carriers from Diego Garcia thousands of miles away, using a peacetime supply system in a wartime fight.
  • Crews on the Lincoln are worn down by endless deployments and skipped maintenance, raising the odds of a serious accident.

Outlook: Swapping the Lincoln for the George Washington won't fix anything — the supply squeeze and crew exhaustion follow the mission, not the ship.

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