The Everett area population is dropping by more than 3,000 Navy sailors as the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln departs Tuesday with two other Everett-based ships - the destroyers Momsen and Shoup.

The Lincoln will pick up another 2,000 people with its air wing in Southern California along with several more ships in its strike group.

The Navy is sending them on a routine deployment in the western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Arabian Gulf.

The Lincoln returned from a seven-month mission supporting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in October 2008 and underwent a nine-month $250 million overhaul at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

The nuclear-powered Lincoln is scheduled to head to Newport News, Va., at the end of 2011 for refueling.

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