Pentagon Correspondent Mike Glenn has a deep dive into reports that conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln have deteriorated so significantly that multiple sailors have tried to commit suicide by jumping overboard.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said those reports of poor living conditions and food shortages aboard the aircraft carrier have been “completely misrepresented” in the press. But families of crewmembers have said that morale has plummeted aboard the aircraft carrier due to a grueling and extended combat deployment to the Middle East. They have reported cases of severe exhaustion and mental health pressures among the 5,000 Marines and sailors aboard.

The nuclear-powered ship, which has played a central role in the U.S. war against Iran, was due to return home in May. But its deployment has been extended with no publicly announced return date.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, sent a letter to Mr. Hegseth and acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao this week asking what the Pentagon is doing to improve conditions on the vessel. 

Mr. Trump issued a sweeping memo late Thursday addressing a host of issues related to U.S. naval power and the push to reinvigorate America’s shipbuilding industrial base. For example, it paves the way for foreign companies to build U.S. warships.

But perhaps the most notable item is one that would fix what has long been a pet peeve of the president’s: It would return to the steam-powered systems that have launched fighter jets from American aircraft carriers for decades. Mr. Trump’s directive orders the Pentagon to provide a plan within 60 days for replacing the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Weapons Elevators on the USS Doris Miller — a fourth-generation Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear-powered supercarrier currently under construction — with steam and hydraulic systems.

A steam catapult uses high-pressure steam to drive a piston that launches a jet along a track beneath the flight deck. The Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, known as EMALS, uses energy drawn from the ship’s nuclear reactors, discharging it in a rapid pulse to create a magnetic field that propels the jet off the carrier.

All facets of American naval power and strategy were in the spotlight at the recent IndoPac 2026 Threat Status event in Washington.

The 21st-century space economy — businesses operating in space and new jobs created to sustain those operations — is being built in real time. But that space economy inevitably will create conflict, potentially between the U.S. and a great power adversary such as China. And the U.S. Space Force must protect that new economic domain much like the Navy guards the maritime realm, says Robert Lightfoot, the president of Lockheed Martin Space.

Mr. Lightfoot sat down with National Security Editor Guy Taylor for an exclusive interview at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama. Mr. Lightfoot explained why the U.S. must view space through a combined national security and economic lens.

“How do we protect the space we’re using … to allow us to be able to use that for commercial reasons and for terrestrial reasons, right? There’s no doubt that space has become a contested environment now. That’s a totally different thing than we dealt with 25 years ago,” he said. 

For Saudi Arabia, the situation in neighboring Yemen is growing dire. The country has stopped loading crude from its Red Sea coast amid ramped-up attacks from Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. A full closure of the Red Sea’s southern gateway, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, would put a quarter of the world’s oil and gas supply at risk. And Riyadh has already rerouted its Asia-bound crude north through the Suez Canal, a run that takes 54 days to South Korea compared to 24 through the Bab el-Mandeb.

Threat Status Correspondent Jacob Wirtschafter explores one potential Saudi response: backing a Yemeni government ground offensive to recapture strategically vital Red Sea shoreline from the Houthis.

That move would be a game changer. But it’s not clear whether the recent Saudi-Turkey-Pakistan defense pact might complicate Riyadh’s decision-making about a ground offensive in Yemen.

The landmark defense deal among Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia seems to represent a bet that the U.S.-Iran war will end with Tehran in a stronger position than before and perhaps even more hostile to its neighbors. And those three nations want to prepare for that reality.

Washington Times columnist Jed Babbin explains what he believes is driving the decision-making in Ankara, Islamabad and Riyadh. For starters, he writes, the deal could be an attempt to replace the nuclear-umbrella protection of the U.S. with that of Pakistan, which has its own nuclear stockpile.

“What all this boils down to is that the three nations — Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan — are playing a double game intended to balance the protection of the United States against the protection of Pakistan,” Mr. Babbin says. “They are betting against the results of the joint U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.”

• Aug. 17 — Beyond Pyongyang: Regional Development, Modernization and Inequality in North Korea, Stimson Center

• Aug. 18 — The Hormuz Implications for Energy Policymaking: Japan and South Korea, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• Aug. 19 — Golden Dome: Early Assessment and Open Questions, Brookings Institution 

• Aug. 25-26 — Counter UAS Summit, Institute for Defense and Government Advancement

• Aug. 27 — 2026 Navy Summit, Potomac Officers Club

• Aug. 27 — Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy on the Modern Battlefield, Atlantic Council