The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush is seen moored in the Mediterranean Sea off the Israeli port of Haifa on July 1, 2017. The 1,092 feet (333 metres) carrier which can carry 6,000 personnel, is one of the worlds largest warships. / AFP PHOTO / JACK GUEZ (Photo credit should read JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
The United States is reportedly exploring the possibility of relocating some of its bases in the Middle East to Israel. The U.S.-Israel war against Iran and its aftermath may see Israel living up more than ever to its reputation, which it embraced and promoted for decades, as the equivalent of an unsinkable American aircraft carrier in that strategic region.
The unprecedented joint U.S.-Israel air campaign launched against Iran on February 28 saw Tehran unleash unprecedented drone and missile attacks in response. Tehran targeted U.S. military facilities in the Arab Gulf countries, with the United Arab Emirates facing more attacks than even Israel. Post-war satellite images revealed substantial damage to these regional bases that would cost billions of dollars to repair.
Consequently, the United States is reassessing its military posture in the region, The Wall Street Journal reported on June 27. The report states that the U.S. military is presently “considering revamping” the naval base on the island kingdom of Bahrain, which sustained more damage than Washington has hitherto disclosed, and to reduce its forces in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Even after the April 8 ceasefire, Kuwait and Bahrain have endured intermittent Iranian attacks during tit-for-tat clashes with U.S. forces.
Another move currently under consideration is relocating bases and operations from the Gulf further westward, including to Israel. Depending on the forces relocated there, the move could see Israel’s reputation as an American aircraft carrier practically put to test.
Despite maintaining close military relations since the 1960s, when Washington first became a major arms supplier to Israel, the U.S. never had large bases or troop deployments in Israel, as it has with many allies. Furthermore, until the June 2025 Israeli 12-day war against Iran, when the U.S. intervened with Operation Midnight Hammer and bombed key Iranian nuclear sites, the U.S. and Israeli militaries never fought side-by-side in combat. Even in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, when the U.S. launched Operation Nickel Grass to resupply Israeli munitions and military hardware, it did not directly intervene in the conflict. Ahead of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein’s Iraq launched unprecedented Scud missile attacks against Israeli cities, the U.S. rushed two MIM-104 Patriot missile defense systems and at least 30 U.S. Army operators to Israel. These were under “Israeli engagement control” throughout that war.
In 2017, the U.S. did establish a small permanent military base for housing U.S. Air Force personnel at the Israeli Air Force’s Mashabim Air Base in the Negev desert. It was the first-ever of its kind.
The nature and scale of U.S. military deployments to Israel would change drastically during the regional wars that followed the October 7, 2023, attacks. Following Iran’s first-ever two direct ballistic missile and drone attacks against Israel on April 13 and October 1, 2024, the U.S. deployed a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system along with at least 100 troops. Washington transferred a second THAAD in early 2025 ahead of the 12-day war. These strategic American missile defenses, in Israel and elsewhere in the region, significantly boosted Israeli defenses against Iranian barrages during that war.
Ahead of the most recent U.S.-Israel war, the U.S. Air Force deployed fifth-generation F-22 Raptor stealth fighters to Israel’s Ovda Air Base, marking the first-ever deployment of U.S. combat aircraft to Israel. The U.S.-based JINSA think-tank hailed the move, recalling Israel’s reputation as “the largest aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be sunk” before positing that: “Deploying F-22s to Ovda now gives the United States a third aircraft carrier in the region to confront Iran.”
Furthermore, the national security think-tank also argued that the deployment gave the U.S. “far more striking power than our entire buildup at other airbases throughout the region.” A redeployment of additional U.S. forces and equipment presently in the Gulf may test that hypothesis, especially in the event of another round of hostilities with Iran. In the months since that deployment, there were complaints in Israel over how much space a parallel U.S. deployment of large KC-46 and KC-135 aerial tankers has taken up at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport at the expense of civil aviation.
Still, after decades of mere rhetoric, Israel’s utility as a land-based American aircraft carrier has finally been put to the test.
When the carrier USS George H.W. Bush docked outside of Israel’s Haifa port in 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a visit and described Israel as “another mighty aircraft carrier of our common civilization.” Such rhetoric is anything but new. In the early 1980s, Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon boasted to Israeli military commanders that the Pentagon had told him “Israel saves the U.S. from building and keeping another 20 aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean.”
Interestingly, the U.S. Navy briefly explored the feasibility and practicality of basing an actual U.S. aircraft carrier and other naval ships in Haifa in 1993. “If you want to reduce the number of carriers, you can do it by home-porting in Haifa,” retired U.S. Vice Adm. William Rowden argued at the time. “There’s no question you can stretch your capability for forward presence.”
An old Israeli joke begins by asking if one has heard about a U.S. carrier making a port call to Israel, with the punchline declaring: “It docked at Haifa, Tel Aviv, Ashdod and Ashkelon at the same time.”
Perhaps the most extreme suggestion related to Israel serving as an American aircraft carrier was to formally annex Israel into the United States. The influential conservative commentator William F. Buckley advocated incorporating Israel into the United States as its 51st state in a 1972 editorial.
Such an annexation, he reasoned, “would all but eliminate tensions in the area, making Soviet efforts to finance and provision anti-Israeli expeditions fruitless and incidentally providing us, at the eastern point of the Mediterranean, naval and military facilities as truly our own as the Norfolk Naval Base and the SAC base in Omaha.
Of course, Haifa never became a base for U.S. carriers, and Israel certainly did not become the 51st state. Nevertheless, the recent U.S. military deployments to Israel are undoubtedly the most significant of all time, especially if they transform into a long-term presence with a relocation of additional U.S. bases and assets from the Gulf states.
Such a move would have benefits and burdens for both sides. For Israel, deployments like those tankers at Ben Gurion could pose temporary headaches. At the same time, deployments of air defenses like the THAAD help reduce the burden on its precious Arrow interceptors. During the latest Iran war, America expended more air defense interceptors defending Israel than Israel itself did. Any American assets deployed in Israel to protect American personnel will benefit Israel’s overall protection. For the U.S., critics invariably charge that such direct and visible U.S. military backing could end up encouraging Israeli leaders like Netanyahu to escalate regional engagements and potentially draw in the U.S. or incur retaliatory fire against American forces in Israel. At the same time, a military deployment to Israel gives the U.S. access to bases less exposed to ones in the Gulf with fewer restrictions from the host government on using them for operations throughout the region. That could prove valuable, especially if Washington doesn’t have an actual aircraft carrier in the vicinity, as was the case at the start of this year due to the intervention in Venezuela.