How U.S. Naval Base Damage Will Impact Iran War - Newsweek

The U.S. Navy base in Bahrain was badly damaged by Iranian strikes, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao has said in a rare high-level acknowledgment of damage to the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, that may raise questions about American capabilities in the Middle East.

The Pentagon had initially said the strikes on February 28 at the start of the Iran war did not significantly impact military operations.

However, Cao admitted there was significant damage, telling The Epoch Times, "they blew the hell out of Bahrain."

When contacted for comment, the Pentagon told Newsweek in a statement: "As a matter of practice, we do not comment on intelligence-related matters."

Retired U.S. Vice Admiral Robert Murrett told Newsweek on Friday, "It's going to take some time before we're able to, if we choose to do so, go back up to full operating capacity in Bahrain."

The U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on February 28, prompting Tehran to retaliate that day with an attack on Bahrain’s capital Manama. Some strikes targeted the Juffair district, where the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet is headquartered at Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bahrain.

While open-source imagery had previously indicated the naval base sustained damage, Cao’s comments were the first official acknowledgment of the impact of Iranian strikes on the site, which has key warehouse and logistics support facilities.

The Wall Street Journal, citing satellite imagery and accounts by service members, reported in June that the attacks had caused extensive damage to the base’s command center and at least a dozen other buildings within the facility, which the Pentagon did not immediately acknowledge.

"It's hard to overestimate the importance that Bahrain had for the Navy for operations," said Murrett, who is professor of practice at Syracuse University.

"What happened to Bahrain is a subset of the other attacks that Iran has made on military installations throughout the Middle East, which has been fairly high on their target list," he said. "They have had a deliberate strategy of trying to put at risk most of the bases that we have for ground, naval, and air forces throughout the region.

"Probably the most acute impact has been on the Navy just because of the fact they went after Bahrain."

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi posted on X his reaction to Cao’s remarks with a boast about the impact of Iran’s strikes on U.S. targets.

"Our powerful Armed Forces did indeed ‘blow the hell out of the 5th Fleet HQ in Bahrain,’ as well as other bases supporting U.S. aggression," said the post, which added that "the American people deserve better than footing the bill for Israel’s wars."

The NSA Bahrain base hosted the U.S. Fifth Fleet and the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT), and is the Navy’s main logistics hub in the Gulf region.

However, the damage it has sustained has raised questions over whether the base can be used as it was previously.

Admiral Daryl Caudle, the Navy’s highest-ranking officer, told sailors during a town hall in June it would be a while before the service would return to its main logistics hub, saying he wanted to be "honest" and that "we’re not getting back in there anytime soon."

Retired Navy Captain John Cordle recently described the devastation of NSA Bahrain as having serious tactical and strategic repercussions. In an op-ed in the Military Times in August, he said moving supply hubs to thousands of miles away would limit future maritime operations.

"The more we learn about the attacks on the U.S. Naval Support Activity in Manama, Bahrain, during the opening days of Operation Epic Fury, the clearer it becomes why the news of its near destruction was not initially reported or acknowledged," Cordle said.

When asked whether the Navy would need to repair NSA Bahrain to keep its forces in the region, Cao told The Epoch Times: "I have a task force that’s looking at that."

Cao said damage to the base affected operations involving the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which had to extend its deployment, prompting concerns about the crew’s well-being.

Last week, the world’s scrutiny was on the crew of the carrier when they enjoyed shore leave in Pattaya, Thailand, ahead of its return to the United States.

Murrett said: "It has made things a little bit more challenging, as we saw with all the reporting on USS Abraham Lincoln and the other ships and carriers and destroyers that we have in the regional logistics. It made it much more difficult because it's a longer pipeline."

"It can still be done, but it's not as straightforward or as good for the crews or as straightforward from a logistics and command-and-control standpoint as it was before the war started," he added.

"I think our effectiveness will be as good as ever, but it's going to be a little bit harder on the troops over there and it's going to make it more difficult to mount these operations—but they can be sustained," added Murrett.

Around 50,000 American troops were deployed across the Middle East when the Iran war was launched, but missile and drone attacks by Iran and Iranian-linked groups have forced U.S. Central Command to disperse thousands of personnel away from primary installations.

By the end of March, at least 11 American bases or installations had been damaged, according to satellite imagery and reports, not all of which had been confirmed by the Pentagon.

Among them was the Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, where satellite imagery in March showed crater impacts, collapsed accommodation buildings and structural damage inside operational compounds.

Missile and drone strikes also damaged Ali Al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait, a key U.S.-led coalition hub, with open-source sites saying three Kuwaiti Eurofighters had been destroyed and two Italian fighters damaged.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Tuesday it had launched "devastating" missile strikes on U.S. forces stationed at the Al-Azraq base in Jordan, which hosts U.S. military assets. Missiles struck the sites where F-35, F-16 and F-15 fighter jets were located, the IRGC said in the statement.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Federica Bindi and Tony Phillips.