Official Statement: Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao publicly confirmed the severe destruction, noting the heavy impact on operations.

Intro: Base Overview

Name: Naval Support Activity Bahrain (NSA Bahrain).

Location: Juffair district, near the capital city of Manama.

Role: Headquarters for the U.S. Fifth Fleet and Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT).

Function: Acts as a major logistics center and support base for ships, aircraft, and personnel in the region. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Recent Status and Conflict Impact

Damage: The base suffered extensive damage to its command center, warehouses, and barracks from Iranian missile and drone strikes.

Iran has COMPLETELY DESTROYED The US Base In Bahrain!

Sep 12, 2026  The Jimmy Dore Show PODCAST

In the segment, guest host Garland Nixon is joined by antiwar.com’s Kyle Anzalone to discuss Iran’s devastating attacks on the U.S. Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain, which is so badly damaged that U.S. personnel cannot even return to retrieve personal effects, exposing Trump’s claims that Iran is defeated as lies. The two highlight how Bahrain’s majority Shia population cheered Iranian missile strikes because the U.S. base enforces the Sunni monarchy’s oppression, and that Iran’s attacks also caused supply problems for the USS Abraham Lincoln. 

Anzalone argues the war strategy was disastrous and wasteful, as billions spent on vulnerable bases could have improved America, and the conflict is destabilizing the U.S. economically and politically. They predict Republicans will be wiped out in midterms but warn Democrats will not change foreign policy, as both parties serve the same interests, as evinced by Hakeem Jeffries’s recent meeting with Jared Kushner and many Democrats pushing for MORE aggression against Iran.

Garland Nixon on YouTube:    / @blurghy  
Garland Nixon on Twitter:   / thegarlandnixon  

Kyle Anzalone on Twitter:   / kyleanzalone_  
Kyle Anzalone on YouTube:    / @kyleanzalone  

Hung Cao Admits: Iran Blew Up Fifth Fleet Base in Bahrain

Acting U.S. Navy Secretary Hung Cao has confirmed that Iran's February attack destroyed the Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain. Rebuilding estimates run as high as 400 million dollars.

Tijana JovanovićSeptember 12, 20263 min read0

Podeli

A US Navy destroyer entering port — A US Navy destroyer in port. After the attack on Bahrain, part of the Fifth Fleet's tasks moved to other bases./ Photo: U.S. Navy

Iran’s February strike on the largest American naval base in the Middle East has finally gotten an official admission out of Washington, months after the fact, and the admission shows just how fragile the security setup behind energy prices in Europe, Serbia included, really is. Acting Secretary of the U.S. Navy Hung Cao confirmed to The Epoch Times that Iranian strikes badly damaged the Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.

“They blew Bahrain to the ground.”

Cao made the remark as acting secretary, a role he is filling on a temporary basis rather than holding as permanent under secretary, contrary to how some outlets have described his position.

What actually happened in Bahrain

Iran struck Naval Support Activity Bahrain on February 28, 2026, using missiles and one way attack drones, in the opening phase of the war that followed American and Israeli strikes on Iranian territory. The Fifth Fleet headquarters, military barracks, warehouses and communications towers, the facilities that had served for decades as the operational hub of the U.S. naval presence in the Persian Gulf, were all damaged.

An investigation by The Wall Street Journal put the cost of rebuilding the base at around 400 million dollars. Despite that figure, the Navy has not yet decided whether to rebuild it at all. Cao told reporters a dedicated task force is still weighing its options, including the question of whether repairs are even necessary.

In place of Bahrain, the Navy is now running operations out of Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean more than 2,000 miles from its former hub. That distance has turned routine resupply into a month ahead planning exercise: according to Military Times, the crew of one Independence class littoral combat ship now has to place food orders 30 days before delivery, because combat deployment schedules shift faster than supplies can catch up.

An admiral’s admission, no sugarcoating

Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle told sailors displaced from Bahrain, at a meeting with crews, that there would be no return anytime soon.

“We’re not going back there anytime soon. I just want to be fully honest.”

Fifth Fleet commander Vice Admiral Kurt Rensou admitted during a virtual meeting with military families that improvisation has become the norm, saying the Navy is “making it up as we go, because none of this was ever meant to last this long.” Thousands of sailors and their family members remain displaced and are living in temporary housing, waiting to go back for their belongings, and in some cases to be reunited with pets left behind during the base evacuation.

Retired U.S. Navy Captain John Cordle warned that the fallout goes beyond property damage, saying “the loss carries deep tactical and strategic consequences,” and argued it has also broken the logistics network that American naval missions in the Gulf region relied on.

Tehran treats the admission as a victory lap

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi publicly welcomed the American admission, calling it a rare moment of honesty out of Washington. “Our powerful armed forces truly did blow the Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain to the ground,” Araghchi said, folding the strike into Iran’s official narrative of retaliation for the American and Israeli bombing of Iranian territory.

An analysis by the outlet NewsCord, which compared how twelve news organizations covered the admission, found that only two of them reported the 400 million dollar rebuilding estimate, while most stuck to the political message coming out of Tehran rather than the operational cost of the damage.

What this base means for Belgrade and the region

The drama is playing out thousands of miles from Belgrade, but the damage to the largest American naval base in the Persian Gulf still carries weight for southeastern Europe. The Fifth Fleet protects the shipping lanes that carry a significant share of the oil and gas headed for European markets, and any added uncertainty around the American military presence in the Gulf shows up quickly in the energy prices Serbia pays too. Weakening one of the key American bases in the region also affects the broader security setup that underpins stability in the Western Balkans, where Washington remains the most important security guarantor.

The acting Navy secretary said a decision on the fate of the Bahrain base will only come once the task force finishes its assessment, with no firm deadline given. Until then, thousands of American sailors and their families remain in temporary housing, while Washington and Tehran keep sparring over who gets the final word on the scale of the damage in Manama.