A US destroyer docks in the Canary Islands before arriving in Rota

The United States Navy destroyer USS Bulkeley, with a crew made up of some 320 soldiers, arrived at the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria this Friday on its journey from Norfolk (Virginia), from where it left last Monday 8 August, until what will be its new base, Rota (Cádiz).

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
14 August 2022 Sunday 14:46
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A US destroyer docks in the Canary Islands before arriving in Rota

The United States Navy destroyer USS Bulkeley, with a crew made up of some 320 soldiers, arrived at the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria this Friday on its journey from Norfolk (Virginia), from where it left last Monday 8 August, until what will be its new base, Rota (Cádiz). With the upcoming arrival of this ship at the Spanish naval station, along with the USS Paul Ignatius in early 2022, the USS Ross and USS Porter will exchange Rota for Norfolk in the coming months.

The USS Arleigh Burke and the USS Roosevelt are the other two American destroyers at the Cadiz base, but the president of the United States, Joe Biden, and the head of the Spanish Executive, Pedro Sánchez, agreed during the NATO summit in Madrid expand the North American presence in two more ships.

However, the captain of the destroyer, Mac Harkin, has indicated in statements to RTVE that the United States Navy is replacing the current destroyers with more modern models. Likewise, he has indicated that this rotation "was planned long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine." "The Bulkeley was scheduled to go to Rota from 2018 or 2019 as part of the fleet modernization strategy," he said.