Strategic Homeport

Strategic Homeport was a plan developed by the then Secretary of the Navy John Lehman for building new naval bases for the U.S. Navy. It was proposed as part of the 600-ship Navy plan of the Reagan Administration. It called for the construction of new ports for existing and newly commissioned ships. The plan was based on five strategic principles:

1. force dispersal to complicate Soviet targeting
2. battlegroup integrity
3. wider industrial base utilization
4. logistics suitability
5. geographic considerations such as reduced transit times to likely operating areas

The program was devised in part to achieve a political goal: to build support for the naval expansion program though the promise of new naval bases.

The program enjoyed broad support both in Congress and in the Reagan Administration.