Videos do not show missile strike on USS Abraham Lincoln

After the U.S. launched a military strike against Iran, social media users shared videos claiming Iran retaliated by attacking the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

"Iranian missiles have sunk USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf," read one X post that gained 8 million views as of midday March 2.

Another X post read, "Iranians are circulating a video showing the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on fire. The authenticity of the video cannot be verified."

The clips appear to show smoke and fire billowing from the carrier. 

But these videos are fake. Iranians claimed they targeted the carrier with ballistic missiles, but there are no credible reports the ship was struck. 

In a March 1 X post, U.S. Central Command said, in part, "The Lincoln was not hit. The missiles launched didn’t even come close. The Lincoln continues to launch aircraft."

Robert Farley, University of Kentucky senior lecturer on diplomacy and national security, told PolitiFact that if such an attack occurred, people onboard the carrier and neighboring vessels would have witnessed it. There have been no such witness reports. 

The first video shows ship details inconsistent with the real USS Abraham Lincoln. Posts resharing it contain the Instagram logo and username "96_W6," but that account is no longer available.

In the first video, planes on the water have unrealistic shapes, and the vessel’s details do not match legitimate photos of the USS Abraham Lincoln. The real photos show there are empty spaces on both sides of the painted lines on the aircraft carrier’s deck. However, in the video clip, there is no empty space on one side of the lines. There’s no sign that any such space was taken out by a strike, as the ship edges are clean.

(Screenshot on the left is from X, images on the right are from The Associated Press. The red lines represent the painted runway lines, and the green lines represent empty spaces.)

The second video does not show current events; it was first posted online in June 2025, during the 12-Day War between Iran and Israel. It might have originated from video game footage, fact-checker Lead Stories found.

Sinking a carrier such as the USS Abraham Lincoln would be "extremely difficult," Farley said.

"Any US carrier will have several layers of defenses against ballistic missiles, including escort warships and close-engagement weapons," he wrote in an email to PolitiFact. 

Recent news reports say the USS Abraham Lincoln had been in the Arabian Sea.

Social media posts claimed to show footage of the USS Abraham Lincoln damaged by an Iranian attack. We rate that claim Pants on Fire!