The USS Abraham Lincoln arrived in Pattaya, Thailand, on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, with its hull covered in algae and rust. The five-day port visit was the ship’s first full port visit since it was deployed on November 21, 2025. The ship’s crew and Thai port workers cleaned some of the algae and rust off the ship during the visit, and it left looking better than it did when it arrived. (Thai News Pix/Arnun Chonmahatrakool)
Was It Normal for the USS Abraham Lincoln to Look So Rusty in Thailand?
The US Navy is constantly fighting rust on its ships, and there’s no quick and easy fix for the Lincoln.
President Donald Trump has been almost surprisingly silent on the condition of the United States Navy’s USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) after it arrived in Pattaya, Thailand, on Wednesday. Multiple news outlets were quick to report on the state of the warship, which was covered in algae and rust.
Across social media, there was also commentary that questioned why the ship looked worse for wear following its Middle Eastern deployment. However, the simple answer is that it had been deployed for 285 days and spent only two of them in port. All that time at sea is rough on any vessel.
“Rust along the waterline is not unusual on a ship that has spent 60 days or more of operations continuously at sea,” Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain who did three tours on the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers like CVN-72, told CNN this week.
Thai workers helped clean the ship before it left port on Sunday morning, looking much better than it did when it arrived.
But again, Trump has been uncharacteristically silent on the matter.
Trump Famously Hates the Appearance of Rust
It was in the spring 2025 that the president reportedly gave then-Secretary of the Navy John Phelan a direct order to “fix the damn rust” conspicuously covering many US Navy ships. The reality TV star-turned-president is well-known for his close attention to appearances, but the nature of the order seemed to suggest he didn’t quite understand that rust isn’t something that can be permanently “fixed.”
How Will the Lincoln’s Rust Be Removed?
Rust is something that is addressed when a ship returns to port, notably for its Planned Incremental Availability (PIA), the scheduled period when a US Navy aircraft carrier undergoes extensive maintenance, repairs, and modernization at a shipyard.
Rust is absolutely among the issues addressed, but its priority and who fixes it depends entirely on where the rust is located and its severity. During the PIA, contractors and shipyard workers are charged with rehabilitating tens of thousands of square feet of hangar bays, structural bulkheads, and flight deck catwalks, where they will blast away accumulated surface rust and apply fresh, industrial-grade marine coatings.
More importantly, standard surface rust on the outer hull below the waterline cannot be addressed while the ship is waterborne. That may be addressed during a Docking Planned Incremental Availability (DPIA), when the ship enters a dry dock.
That allows the shipyard to completely scrape, blast, and repaint the hull to remediate marine growth and saltwater corrosion, WAVY.com explained.
“Based on what I am seeing, you are looking at about 30 days of preservation work to remove all the rust,” Schuster told CNN, adding that he expected crews would be lowered to the waterline, sand off the rust, and then apply at least two coats of rust-preventative primer followed by two more coats of naval gray paint.
Some of that work appeared to be accomplished during the port visit to Thailand, especially as the rust is now in the spotlight.
“They will do only high-priority work during a seven-day port visit. The rust on the bow and forward hull areas will be done first because they take the most abuse when the ship is moving, and they absorb the corrosive actions that accompany moving through salt waters, particularly choppy seas,” Schuster continued.
The Navy Will Always Be Fighting Rust. Here’s Why
Rust on the hull is hardly an isolated problem with the USS Abraham Lincoln. Many warships from around the world often return to their homeport sporting quite a bit of rust. The sea service faced a similar issue during the COVID-19 pandemic as warships spent longer times at sea and avoided ports to keep the crew free of infection.
Rust is, simply put, a constant, unstoppable, and relentless enemy.
The issue is so serious that there was even a “MegaRust” conference in San Diego earlier this year that looked at the threat from seawater on steel vessels.
“Corrosion is a major factor in the readiness and total ownership cost of naval systems and this conference is intended to provide updated information on programs, policies, standards and Fleet experience related to corrosion and to promote discussion and sharing of information on technologies and strategies for controlling corrosion,” the American Society of Naval Engineers explained in its promotion of the event.
If rust is so pervasive, why has the USS Abraham Lincoln gotten so much attention on the matter?
It could be that social media, including ship spotting accounts, were quick to share images of the warship arriving in Thailand. In the past, photos from such visits would be carefully controlled by the US Navy. (The Navy, which often shares photos of its ships in news releases and on social media, has not shared any photos of the ship’s exterior when it arrived in Thailand.)
Moreover, CVN-72 has been in the spotlight for much of the summer due to its lengthy deployment and concerns about the sailors’ well-being, including setting the record for the longest time at sea without a port visit.
About the Author: Peter Suciu
Peter Suciu has contributed to dozens of newspapers, magazines and websites over a 30-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a contributing writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. He is based in Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.
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