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US Navy stretched thin in West Asia as supply routes collapse: NYT

 Al Mayadeen| September 2, 2026

A New York Times investigation reveals that the US Navy’s problem in West Asia is no longer just about remaining missile stockpiles or the threat of Iranian strikes, but rather its ability to keep about 20 ships and 20,000 sailors and Marines in the region without a nearby and secure supply network.

According to the NYT, Iranian strikes have dismantled the Navy’s regional supply chain, putting pressure on the aircraft carriers, destroyers, and amphibious ships Washington has kept in the region indefinitely since launching its war on Iran.

Two carriers, the USS George HW Bush and the USS George Washington, are currently stationed in the region alongside 12 destroyers carrying about 3,700 personnel, together enforcing a blockade on Iranian ports. An amphibious ready group of three additional warships, carrying 5,000 Marines, rounds out the force to roughly 20 ships and 20,000 sailors and Marines total.

Feeding and fueling that many ships is a demanding task on its own, the NYT reports. The fleet needs more than 420,000 meals and around eight million gallons of fuel every week. A single carrier carries 5,000 crew members who eat up to four times a day, and although the carriers run on nuclear power, the aircraft and helicopters launching from them burn through millions of gallons of fuel weekly.

Bahrain strike broke the supply chain

The Navy built a network of regional supply depots over several decades to support this scale of operation. That network stopped functioning on February 28, the first day of the war, when Iran struck and destroyed a major Navy logistics base in Bahrain.

Every other regional port capable of servicing a carrier or supply ship now sits within range of Iranian missiles and drones, cutting the Navy off from them as well.

Diego Garcia, Singapore, and resupply at sea

With regional bases out of reach, supply ships must now sail to Diego Garcia, a small island in the Indian Ocean about 2,200 miles from where the fleet operates in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. Singapore is the only other option, a 3,700-mile trip that routes ships through the crowded Strait of Malacca.

Those distances mean warships depend on resupply missions at sea roughly every five to six days, a process the NYT describes as dangerous for both vessels involved. A receiving ship and a supply ship must sail side by side for hours, matching course and speed to stay within about 150 feet of each other through shifting wind, waves, and current. Crews fire lines between the ships by rifle to rig steel cables, then send fuel and pallets of goods across on those lines while helicopters carry additional supplies, parts, and mail between the ships in nets.

Why the Navy can’t keep this up indefinitely

These deployments have no fixed end date. Ships stay in the region until the US president and war secretary order otherwise. But the NYT’s reporting shows that the fleet is running out of room to sustain that.

The Navy has 11 aircraft carriers total, four of which are already committed to the war on Iran, while several others sit in shipyards for repairs that will keep them out of service for years.

The USS Abraham Lincoln shows what that toll looks like in practice. It spent nearly its entire nine-month deployment at sea without a single port call, well beyond the roughly monthly stops carriers normally make so crews can rest.

The USS George Washington relieved the Lincoln on August 20, and the carrier docked in Thailand this week, where its crew will get a short break before the ship continues home to San Diego.

September 2, 2026 - Posted by | Militarism, Wars for Israel | , ,

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