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Former CENTCOM Commander Calls for Moving U.S. Bases Westward from Persian Gulf
General Kenneth McKenzie said large fixed bases near Iran have become vulnerable after four months of conflict. The Trump administration is reviewing proposals to shift operations westward, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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"What you want to do is you want to spread out that necklace of bases far to the west, where you make it harder for the Iranians to see you, you make it harder for the Iranians to range you," McKenzie said Monday during a virtual conference hosted by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America.
He described Qatar's Al-Udeid Air Base as a "monument to old think" and said future operations will require better electromagnetic management and awareness of space-based surveillance.
Iranian missile and drone strikes have hit several U.S. installations in the Persian Gulf region since late February, including a strike on a makeshift operations center at Kuwait's Shuaiba port and an attack on Camp Buehring. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed strikes on eight bases in Bahrain and Kuwait over the weekend.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that damage to Naval Support Activity Bahrain could cost $400 million to repair. A defense official declined to discuss specific force-protection measures for operational security reasons.
The precise terms remain undefined and depend on a broader agreement. McKenzie recommended maintaining some presence in the Persian Gulf focused on anti-missile and drone defenses while considering Israel for consolidation of high-value equipment. Michael Rubin, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said the conflict should settle the debate over basing locations.
