US Navy Seeks Alternative Ports After Losing Access to Bahrain

The US Navy is looking for alternative ports across the Indian Ocean region after losing access to its traditional base in Bahrain. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle said Kenya, Diego Garcia, India and Singapore are among the destinations under consideration.

Distance is the constraint that shapes the list. Singapore sits roughly 3,000 nautical miles from the Arabian Sea operating area, far enough that a port of call there consumes a substantial share of any operational pause rather than providing a short break within it.

The search follows operational strain during the extended deployment of the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which remained at sea for 250 days. Crew families reported allegations of food shortages, unsanitary conditions and multiple suicide attempts aboard, prompting immediate Navy relief efforts.

I've got to work very carefully with the Fifth Fleet commander to go do that and make sure that there's an understanding of the forecast and combat operations to allow something like that to be done, Caudle said, referring to the coordination required to schedule periodic port calls during lulls in operations.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt is preparing to deploy to relieve the USS George Washington. Caudle said he intends to apply the lessons of the Abraham Lincoln deployment to carrier operations and crew welfare on subsequent rotations in the region.

For port operators along the Indian Ocean rim, a shift in US Navy port call patterns carries commercial weight. Repair, provisioning and husbandry work associated with carrier group visits has historically concentrated in a small number of Gulf ports, and a redistribution across East Africa, the Chagos Archipelago, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia would move that spending with it.