Since World War II, the Mediterranean Sea has been the home to the U.S. Sixth Fleet, whose mission is to conduct “the full range of Maritime Operations and Theater Security Cooperation missions to advance security and stability in Europe and Africa.” It was an essentially uncontested naval force through the mid-2000s, operating with near impunity from the Strait of Gibraltar to Israel, from the Black Sea to the Suez Canal.

Today, Russia and China are operating within the Eastern Mediterranean region with growing ambition and determination to challenge America’s historic naval posture and extensive power projection reach.

Russia recently signed a 49-year lease with Syria, to build up its once-modest facility at Tartus into a naval base that can handle Russia’s largest nuclear-powered battle cruisers, and possibly even nuclear submarines.

Along with a long-term air base lease, Russia is building an unprecedented powerful military complex in Syria, making it possible for the first time for Russian land-based aircraft and naval forces to patrol the eastern Mediterranean without requiring support from distant home ports.

It is also the first time in 70 years that such a base complex exists in the Mediterranean beyond the control of the United States or its allies, adding the threat of sophisticated Area Access Area Denial systems, which can thwart the free flow of U.S. and allied naval and commercial vessels.

Coupled with Russia’s naval facility modernization plans in the annexed region of Crimea and its escalated diplomatic mediation between the U.N.-backed Libyan government and its military rivals in eastern Libya, Moscow is positioned to significantly influence events in the Mediterranean, and the adjoining Aegean and Black Seas, for the foreseeable future.

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