US Navy sails to Naples

The US Navy is shifting its European operational headquarters from London to Naples as part of the Pentagon’s strategy against new threats in the post-Cold War era.

Headquarters staff, now based in London, 6th Fleet commanders in Gaeta, north of Naples, and officials from other bases will be consolidated in Naples, said Admiral Gregory Johnson, commander of Nato forces in Naples and US naval forces in Europe, giving the first details.

He said the Western alliance is battling a “band of chaos” around the world, facing new dangers from terrorism, nuclear proliferation, trafficking in weapons and human beings.

Admiral Johnson said the move made sense because Nato is no longer facing a Soviet bloc and the military needed to readjust ”to the operational realities of today”.

“After the Cold War the strategic shift has moved south and east. It’s kind of natural that Naples is at the centre of where the strategic shift of Nato is,” he said in the Italian city.