Biden’s Navy Blunder: US Navy Oiler Runs Aground and Is Partially Flooded off the Coast of Oman — Leaving Abraham Lincoln Strike Group Vulnerable Without its Primary Source of Fuel in Middle East

The U.S. Navy has been left scrambling after the Navy oiler USNS Big Horn ran aground and partially flooded off the coast of Oman.

The incident, first reported by maritime news site gCaptain, has left the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group in a vulnerable position—without its primary source of fuel in a volatile region.

The Big Horn, a 33-year-old Kaiser-class oiler, sustained damage to its rudder and experienced water flooding in a mechanical space.

Photos and videos leaked from the scene depict significant damage, as the Navy now scrambles to assess the full extent.

While no injuries or environmental damage were reported, this is a major blow to the Navy’s readiness in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations.

Video via gCaptain, John Konrad:

It’s not looking good. I’ve been told by a shipowner the Navy does not have a spare oiler to deploy and is scrambling to find a commercial oil tanker to refuel the Abraham Lincoln carrier group.

Updates over at gCaptain forum: https://t.co/nNG6uSYGJJ https://t.co/wGP2GTYyAw pic.twitter.com/ec2oN3CpSf

— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) September 24, 2024

For a carrier strike group operating in the Middle East, refueling is not a luxury but a necessity. Without a reliable fuel source, the USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying vessels are at heightened risk.

The Big Horn was the only available oiler in the region, and now, the Navy is left scrambling to find a commercial oil tanker that can fill the gap.

Navy Times reported:

Though the Lincoln is powered by a nuclear reactor, its strike group has vessels powered by fossil fuel that need to be resupplied at sea. The aircraft aboard the Lincoln also need jet fuel. The Big Horn and other ships like it also provide other supplies.

Oilers like the Big Horn typically have around 80 civilians and five military personnel on board.

It remains unclear if there are any other replenishment ships like it immediately available in the Mideast. An AP survey of publicly released military images of similar replenishment ships run by the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command showed none in the Mideast in recent months. The command declined to comment.

The timing could not be worse for the U.S. Navy. This latest incident underscores a broader tanker crisis the military faces, a problem exacerbated by the closure of the Red Hill Pacific fuel depot in Hawaii last year due to a fuel leak.

With fewer than ten assured tankers for military operations, the Navy is stretched dangerously thin, and the Abraham Lincoln Strike Group’s current predicament serves as a glaring example.

To make matters worse, the John Lewis-class oilers—the planned replacement for the aging Kaiser-class vessels like the Big Horn—are still plagued by delays. Despite being launched in 2021, the USNS John Lewis and its counterparts are still sitting in a repair yard, unable to deploy.

More from gCaptain:

The Navy currently faces a severe shortage of oilers and crew to operate them. Earlier this month, the Navy announced it might lay up 17 replenishment and supply ships—including one oiler—due to difficulties recruiting U.S. Merchant Mariners. While the Navy has launched five new John Lewis Class oilers – including the USNS Lucy Stone (T-AO 209) this week – and awarded NASSCO a $6.7 billion contract for eight more, challenges persist.

[…]

The grounding of USNS Big Horn is a stark reminder of the broader tanker crisis facing the U.S. military, as highlighted by Captain Steve Carmel, a former vice president at Maersk, in an editorial for gCaptain last year. The Department of Defense is projected to need more than one hundred tankers of various sizes in the event of a serious conflict in the Pacific. However, current estimates indicate that the DoD has assured access to fewer than ten, a dangerously low number that threatens to cripple U.S. military operations. Without sufficient tanker capacity, even the most advanced naval capabilities—including nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, which still rely on aviation fuel—will be rendered ineffective.

[…]

The shortage of both oilers and tankers demands urgent action. The United States must build a larger U.S.-flagged fleet capable of replenishing aircraft carriers and support joint wartime operations. Expanding the Tanker Security Program, enforcing cargo preference, and prepositioning fuel-laden tankers are potential solutions, but they require immediate implementation. With the looming threat of conflict in the Pacific, securing a robust tanker fleet is not just a logistical necessity—it’s a strategic imperative.

This crisis—coupled with the equally troubling US Merchant Marine crewing crisis—poses a significant challenge for the US Navy. Encouragingly, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro has called for a bold new Maritime Statecraft. Moreover, with the leadershipof RepresentativeMichael Waltz and Senator Mark Kelly, Congress is working on a bill to address our maritime dilemmas—a bill this incident makes more compelling than ever. However, major obstacles remain. These solutions take time, and other federal agencies—including the US Coast Guard but most notably the US Maritime Administration under Secretary Pete Buttigieg—are under-resourced and lack motivation to do the heavy lifting required to solve these problems.

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