The U.S. Navy destroyer USS John Basilone (DDG-122) will move its homeport from Naval Station Mayport, Florida, to Naval Station Rota in southern Spain this autumn, according to U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
The Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer is described by the U.S. Navy as capable of ballistic missile defence, anti-submarine warfare, maritime interdiction operations and integrated air and missile defence. Built by General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Maine, the ship was commissioned in November 2024, making it one of the newest destroyers in the fleet to be forward deployed to Europe.
At Rota, John Basilone will join the U.S. Navy’s Forward Deployed Naval Forces-Europe, a group of destroyers permanently based in Spain and operating under U.S. Sixth Fleet. The arrangement began in 2014 and 2015 when four destroyers, USS Donald Cook, USS Ross, USS Porter and USS Carney, moved to the Andalusian base as part of the U.S. contribution to NATO ballistic missile defence under the European Phased Adaptive Approach. Their Aegis combat systems and Standard Missile interceptors were intended to provide sea-based protection for Europe against ballistic missile threats from the Middle East.
In June 2022, during the NATO summit in Madrid, Washington and Madrid agreed to increase the number of U.S. destroyers based at Rota from four to six. The expansion has been accompanied by a gradual rotation of ships, with older destroyers returning to the United States and newer hulls taking their place. Ships based at Rota spend more time on station in the Mediterranean, the Black Sea region before 2022, the Baltic and the High North than destroyers deploying from the U.S. East Coast, as they avoid the lengthy Atlantic transit at either end of each patrol.
Naval Station Rota is a Spanish naval base at which U.S. forces operate under a bilateral defence agreement between the two countries. Located near the Strait of Gibraltar, it gives ships quick access to both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and also supports U.S. Navy logistics and maritime patrol aircraft.
The ship’s namesake, Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone, received the Medal of Honor for his actions defending Henderson Field on Guadalcanal in October 1942, when his machine gun section held off repeated Japanese assaults. After returning to the United States to promote war bond sales, he requested a return to combat and was killed on the first day of the landings at Iwo Jima in February 1945. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his actions there, making him one of the most highly decorated Marines in U.S. history, the U.S. Navy noted. A Gearing-class destroyer, USS Basilone, previously carried his name and served from 1949 to 1977.
U.S. Fleet Forces Command, which announced the move, is responsible for manning, training and equipping more than 125 ships and 1,000 aircraft and supplying combat-ready forces to numbered fleets and combatant commanders around the world.
