The USS Santa Barbara (LCS 32), the second of a trio of Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships with the mine countermeasures mission package, has sailed east to Port Klang, Malaysia after an extended port visit to Kochi, India. It follows the evacuation of U.S. Navy ships from Naval Support Activity Bahrain.
The Santa Barbara sailed west from the Strait of Malacca on June 6 for four days before arriving in Kochi, India on June 10 for what was supposed to be a short port visit, just as its sister ship the USS Canberra (LCS 30) had done a month earlier. Two days later, Israel launched an unprecedented pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure, plunging the region into war.
U.S. Central Command raised alert levels across the region quickly after the strikes began. NSA Bahrain’s command staff ordered only essential personnel to report to work, evacuating military dependents off the base in a massive airlift effort to NSA Naples.
The evacuations and the real world scenario of a possible missile attack on the base by Iran went into action just a few months after Exercise Vigilant Resolve, a test of the base’s personnel to respond to a mass casualty event and noncombatant evacuation operations.
Amid evacuations, all U.S. Navy mine countermeasure ships and large portions of the Royal Bahraini Naval Force were sortied from the base between June 12 and June 17, leaving the base empty, seen in publicly available Copernicus satellite data viewed by Naval News.
Just a few days later, Iran launched a missile attack on nearby Al-Udeid Air Base, in Qatar, moving the facility to lock down and prepare for incoming missiles. The base was not the target of any immediate Iranian attack, but U.S. officials remain on high alert that further attacks may occur, including officials familiar with the mine countermeasures fleet forward deployed in Bahrain.
Stuck in India
USS Santa Barbara had its port stay in Kochi extended to six days amid the evacuations of base noncombatants and principal surface ships from NSA Bahrain. The first MCM LCS to arrive, USS Canberra, was among the several ships sortied ahead of the U.S. entrance into the ongoing war.
USS Tulsa (LCS 16), the third of four specially equipped Littoral Combat Ships expected to forward deploy to NSA Bahrain, was last moored at Apra Harbor, Guam according to ship tracking website MarineTraffic.com. It has not arrived at its homeport in Bahrain where it was expected later this summer, and its current location is unknown.
The four ships were slated to supplement and eventually replace the legacy Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships currently deployed to NSA Bahrain.
Santa Barbara is one of the many ships displaced from port, with all other ships based at NSA Bahrain also at sea. The attack on Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar on June 23rd raised tensions in the region even higher as concerns over mine warfare in the strait grow.
U.S. Pacific Fleet representatives could not comment on the movements of mine warfare ships, citing operational security and standing commitments to not comment on ongoing operations.
Naval News has reached out to the Office of the Secretary of Defense for more details regarding the evacuation and withdrawal of Santa Barbara.
