SAN DIEGO — Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 9 has concluded a 10-month combat deployment aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), Oct. 8. Since embarking Nov. 21, 2025, the Navy’s premier next-generation air wing served as the primary offensive power for the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, demonstrating lethal precision during Operation Epic Fury in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations.
Location: Saudi Arabia, countrywide
Event: Effective October 23, 2026, the Department of State ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and U.S. government employee family members to leave Saudi Arabia due to safety risks.
PERSIAN GULF - United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) received multiple third-party reports on October 26 of a vessel on fire 63 nautical miles southeast of Al-Faw, Iraq, with crew status, damage assessment, and environmental impact unknown at the time of the report.
MIDDLE EAST - Major General Turki Al-Malki, official spokesperson for the Saudi-led Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, stated on October 26 in releases carried by the Saudi Press Agency that coalition air defenses intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi militia toward Riyadh. Al-Malki further stated that coalition forces destroyed two ballistic missile launchers in Sanaa, and that one of those launchers had been used to fire the missile directed at Riyadh. "Operations continue to dismantle the terrorist Houthi militia's ballistic missile network," Al-Malki said.
