{"id":162374,"date":"2026-02-03T19:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T19:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/162374\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T19:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T19:57:08","slug":"jet-from-san-diego-based-uss-abraham-lincoln-shoots-down-iranian-drone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/162374\/","title":{"rendered":"Jet from San Diego-based USS Abraham Lincoln shoots down Iranian drone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"F-35C<\/a>An F-35C launches at night from the USS Abraham Lincoln. (File photo courtesy of the navy)<\/p>\n

A Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that was approaching\u00a0the San Diego-based aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln<\/a>\u00a0in the Arabian Sea, U.S. Central Command said Tuesday, threatening to ramp up tensions as the Trump administration warns of possible military action to\u00a0get Iran to the negotiating table<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The drone \u201caggressively approached\u201d the aircraft carrier with \u201cunclear intent\u201d and kept flying toward it \u201cdespite de-escalatory measures taken by U.S. forces operating in international waters,\u201d Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The shootdown occurred within hours of Iranian forces harassing a U.S.-flagged and U.S.-crewed merchant vessel that was sailing in the Strait of Hormuz, the American military said.<\/p>\n

The developments could further escalate\u00a0the heightened tensions between the longtime adversaries<\/a>\u00a0as President Donald Trump has threatened to use military action first over\u00a0Iran\u2019s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests<\/a>\u00a0and then to try to get the country to make\u00a0a deal over its nuclear program<\/a>. Trump\u2019s Republican administration has\u00a0built up military forces in the region<\/a>, sending the aircraft carrier, guided-missile destroyers, air defense assets and more to supplement its presence.<\/p>\n

The Shahed-139 drone was shot down by an F-35C fighter jet from the Lincoln, which was sailing about 500 miles from Iran\u2019s southern coast, Hawkins said. No American troops were harmed, and no U.S. equipment was damaged, the military\u2019s statement noted.<\/p>\n

Hours before the drone was shot down, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on Telegram that he had spoken with his counterparts in Kuwait, Qatar, Turkey and Oman regarding regional developments and the importance of protecting \u201cregional stability and security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours after the shootdown, Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces harassed the merchant vessel Stena Imperative, the military said. Two boats and an Iranian Mohajer drone approached the ship \u201cat high speeds and threatened to board and seize the tanker,\u201d Hawkins\u2019 statement said.<\/p>\n

The destroyer USS McFaul responded and escorted the Stena Imperative \u201cwith defensive air support from the U.S. Air Force,\u201d the statement said, adding that the merchant vessel was now sailing safely.<\/p>\n

Tensions began to rise again between the U.S. and Iran as the Islamic Republic spent weeks\u00a0quelling protests<\/a>\u00a0that began in late December against growing economic instability before broadening into a challenge to the country\u2019s ruling theocracy.<\/p>\n

Trump had promised in early January to \u201crescue\u201d Iranians from their government\u2019s protest crackdown before\u00a0starting to pressure Tehran again<\/a>\u00a0to make a deal over its nuclear program. That is even as the Republican president insists Iranian nuclear sites were \u201cobliterated\u201d in\u00a0U.S. strikes in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have talks going on with Iran. We\u2019ll see how it all works out,\u201d Trump told reporters Monday. Asked what his threshold was for military action against Iran, he declined to elaborate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to see a deal negotiated,\u201d Trump said. \u201cRight now, we\u2019re talking to them, we\u2019re talking to Iran, and if we could work something out, that\u2019d be great. And if we can\u2019t, probably bad things would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s president said Tuesday that he instructed the country\u2019s foreign minister to \u201cpursue fair and equitable negotiations\u201d with the U.S., marking one of the first clear signs from Tehran that it wants to try to negotiate with Washington despite a breakdown of talks last summer.<\/p>\n

Turkey had been working behind the scenes<\/a>\u00a0to make the talks happen there later this week as U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff is traveling in the region. A Turkish official later said the location of talks was uncertain but that Turkey was ready to support the process.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has been moving a growing number of assets into the region over the past several weeks, including the Lincoln and several destroyers, which\u00a0arrived last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The carrier strike group, which brought roughly 5,700 additional service members, joined three destroyers and three littoral combat ships that were already in the region.<\/p>\n

Analysts of flight-tracking data also have noticed dozens of U.S. military cargo planes heading to the region.<\/p>\n

The activity is similar to last year when the U.S. moved in air defense hardware, like a Patriot missile system, in anticipation of an Iranian counterattack following the U.S.\u00a0bombing three key nuclear sites<\/a>. Iran launched more than a dozen missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar days after the strikes.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has several bases in the Middle East, including\u00a0Al Udeid<\/a>, which hosts thousands of American troops and is the forward headquarters for U.S. Central Command.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An F-35C launches at night from the USS Abraham Lincoln. (File photo courtesy of the navy) A Navy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[58692,44508,78765,19378,5923,74,76,75,42452],"class_list":["post-162374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-arabian-sea","tag-drone","tag-f-35c","tag-iran","tag-navy","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-uss-abraham-lincoln"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}