Naval Regional Contracting Center Bahrain is one of the few detachments spread around the world, but still under the jurisdiction of Naval Regional Contracting Center Naples. The military installation is headquartered in Naples, Italy. It has two detachments spread around the area, with the most important one in the Arabian world. The location was picked due to the strategical positioning in the immediate proximity of the Middle East. Aside from Bahrain, the second detachment is located in London, UK. A third satellite detachment has recently been opened in Dubai. The base is operated by the United States Navy – more precisely, by the European division. Just like each of the three other centers, this one is also a co-base, which means it is operated under the current laws and regulations of Bahrain.
Mission
Just like the other detachments, NRCC Bahrain works in a tight collaboration with the Department of Defense. One of its primary missions is to support all the operations conducted by the United States Navy in the area, including guidance and oversight. Aside from the US Navy, the installation also supports the Coast Guard and the Military Sealift when it comes to ships and fleet units. Overall, it goes further than that. The base is a common center for all the military bases run by the United States of America in Africa, Europe and the western part of Asia. The support comes as logistics, management and solutions.
While working with the Department of Defense, the installation is also involved in a lot of humanitarian acts. One of the most important ones implies the fight against AIDS in Eastern Europe and Africa. Millions of dollars and plenty of units are deployed in these poor areas of the world in order to not just educate people on the severe risks of AIDS and HIV, but also to award the most significant contracts and operations fighting against the virus.
Finally, supporting its inhabitants so far away from home is one of the real challenges at NRCC Bahrain. The installation is placed in a completely different culture, where the laws and traditions strongly contradict the American lifestyle. Getting used to live in this area might be extremely problematic; there the base officials try their best to make the inhabitants feel like home by providing high quality services and facilities.
Missions
Although NRCC Bahrain is actually a military base, the military purpose of its past missions and actions were not that obvious. Instead, these actions were mostly seen as humanitarian acts or training sessions. For instance, Infinite Moonlight 98 was one of the operations held in Jordan. It lasted a couple of months, in 1998. The operation had the clear purpose to train the Jordan forces in collaboration with the American ones. Some other similar operations include Bright Star, Eagle Resolve, Neon Falcon or the wide variety of exercises performed with the armed forces of Bahrain. All in all, NRCC Bahrain has had exercising missions so far, without any major military ones. However, no one can tell when its actual power will be useful later.