Acting Navy secretary: Iran ‘blew the hell out of’ U.S. base in Bahrain

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told The Epoch Times the Bahrain naval hub suffered heavy damage and the Navy is evaluating whether to repair or relocate facilities.

Acting U.S. Navy Secretary Hung Cao told The Epoch Times in an interview that recent Iranian strikes have inflicted heavy damage on Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bahrain, the longtime headquarters for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the Fifth Fleet. Cao was quoted saying, “They blew the hell out of Bahrain,” and added the Navy has a task force assessing what to do next.

Why this matters: NSA Bahrain has been a central logistics and command hub for U.S. maritime operations in the Middle East for decades. If the facility cannot be repaired or sustained, the Navy may need to change force posture and logistics routes across the region — a shift with operational and diplomatic consequences. Independent satellite and open-source analyses previously have shown significant damage to parts of the Bahrain installation after strikes earlier this year.

Cao’s remarks follow reporting that imagery and social media material indicate large-scale damage to command buildings and support infrastructure at the base. The Wall Street Journal’s investigation concluded that multiple structures and communications terminals were hit in earlier rounds of Iranian attacks; the Pentagon has not publicly provided a comparable on-the-record assessment of the full damage.

Senior Navy leadership has already signalled a limited near-term return to the site. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle told sailors at a town hall on Aug. 31 that the Navy would “not be getting back in there anytime soon,” and said the service was working on plans to reunite displaced personnel with belongings left on the base. That public comment adds weight to Cao’s description that senior officials are re-evaluating the facility’s future.

The report also places the Bahrain discussion alongside separate reporting of damage to U.S. aircraft at Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti (Al-Azraq) air base, where multiple aircraft were reported damaged after an Iranian missile attack. CBS News cited people with direct knowledge saying one A-10 was struck and “lost a wing,” and roughly eight F-15s suffered lighter damage; those accounts were not immediately confirmed in detail by U.S. officials. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iranian state outlets asserted responsibility for strikes across several U.S.-hosted sites.

Tehran’s foreign minister publicly seized on Cao’s language, posting on X that Iran’s forces had indeed “blow[n] the hell out of the 5th Fleet HQ in Bahrain,” a message that framed Cao’s comments as confirmation of Tehran’s claims. That reaction highlights the political dimension: on-the-record language from U.S. officials can be amplified by adversaries and influence both public perception and regional diplomacy.

What U.S. agencies have (and have not) confirmed: reporting to date combines open-source imagery, investigative reporting and anonymous on-the-record comments by U.S. officials. Several outlets have noted the Pentagon and other departments did not immediately provide an on-the-record, detailed public accounting of the damage at NSA Bahrain when some of the imagery was published; Cao’s interview represents a higher-level acknowledgement by a senior Department of the Navy official but does not replace a formal, comprehensive damage assessment released by the Pentagon.

Operational and diplomatic fallout could include longer supply lines for Navy operations, shifts in basing and greater reliance on partner facilities farther from the Gulf — all of which would affect tempo and costs for U.S. missions in the region. For now, the Navy says it has a task force reviewing options, and senior officers have told personnel to expect a protracted timeline before any return to the Bahrain site.

Sources

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