Old Puerto Rico Navy Base Now Home to U.S. Bombers

M.A. Dworkin

Puerto Rico - The former Puerto Rico Naval Station, Roosevelt Roads, after being shuttered by the Navy in 2004, is back in action for President Trump’s Caribbean Counter-Drug mission to wipe out Venezuelan Cartel drug traffic being smuggled into the United States. 

The group of F-35B stealth fighter bombers that landed recently in Puerto Rico joined a growing U.S. military presence at the former Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, now known as Jose Aponte de la Torre Airport. Though the Navy disposed of this sprawling facility more than two decades ago, it has now become a major staging area for the Trump Administration’s battle against narco traffickers and a pressure campaign against Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro. The move is expected by some insiders to be more than a temporary military installation, although those expectations may be wishful thinking.

Before the F-35s arrived, cargo aircraft including the C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster III were seen at the Roosevelt Roads base.  Also present are the U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey, tilt-rotor aircraft, and several USMC CH-53K King Stallion helicopters. The Marine aircraft are part of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Readiness Group (ARG) and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, which began a training exercise in Puerto Rico on August 31, 2025.

President Trump is sending ten F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico, at least five have arrived, as part of his war on drug cartels in what amounts to Washington’s military build-up in the Caribbean. The U.S. accuses Maduro of heading up one of the South American drug cartels. 

The Trump Administration recently carried out a drone strike in the southern Caribbean against a boat that had left Venezuela and was suspected of transporting drugs. Eleven people died in the attack. President Trump claimed the vessel was operated by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. 

In addition to the aircraft at the Roosevelt Roads base, recent images show U.S. Air Force personnel at work restoring the airport communications control tower, while other soldiers loaded and unloaded cargo in preparation for future operations.

All this activity is taking place as the U.S. is once again turning Roosevelt Roads, which had provided support for America’s invasions of the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Grenada and Panama in decades past, into an active military facility. While there are other facilities on the island of Puerto Rico also taking part in the military movement, Roosevelt Roads has become a nexus of activity for this effort. 

The 8,650-acre facility, located in the easternmost point of Puerto Rico’s main island in the town of Ceiba, was opened in 1943. Its centerpiece is an 11,000-foot runway capable of supporting the U.S. Military’s inventory of aircraft. Roosevelt Roads also has a deep water port enabling the navy’s surface and subsurface vessels to dock.

The base was first built during World War II and named for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who came up with the concept of placing a naval base in Puerto Rico. The initial plan was that it would become the keystone of U.S. defenses in the Caribbean, with a well-protected anchorage, a major air station and an industrial establishment capable of supporting 60 percent of the Atlantic Fleet under wartime conditions. There was even talk that if the British Empire were to fall to Axis powers during the Second World War, Roosevelt Roads would become the new operating base for the British Fleet.

However, with the U.S. military’s efforts focused on Hitler in Europe and Japan in the Pacific, the Navy put expansion plans for the base on hold. But in 1957, at the height of the Cold War, Roosevelt Roads was redesignated as a Naval Station. The Soviet Union’s alignment with Cuba was perceived as a growing threat in the Caribbean and the facility’s footprint on the island began to grow. Its port facilities made the base a major support facility for the Sixth Fleet. 

Roosevelt Roads was thought to eventually become one of the largest naval facilities in the world, encompassing more than 100 miles of paved interior roads. However, in the early 2000s, its future grew cloudy. 

The facility’s main mission during those years was serving as a coordinating facility and mission staging point for the U.S. Navy’s bombing range on the island municipality of Vieques, about 10 miles to the southeast. The bombardments were carried out for six decades and generated massive protests over civilian deaths and environmental destruction. 

The Navy finally ended the bombing in 2003. With Vieques bombing range closed, the Navy also decided it no longer needed Roosevelt Roads or its units stationed at the base. It was proposed to be closed under the Base Realignment & Closure (BRAC) process used to dispose of unwanted U.S. military installations. By that time, just two years after 9/11, the U.S. had shifted its focus to the global war on terror. 

As part of the Navy’s turnover of Roosevelt Roads to Puerto Rico, it transferred thousands of housing units, schools, utilities and a world-class hospital that were on the facility. The closure was welcomed by many in Puerto Rico who were opposed to the militarization of the island. However, that move also raised concerns about the loss of a huge economic driver for the island of Puerto Rico.

After the base was shuttered, various parts of it were turned over to different Puerto Rican government organizations. Given its location on the water, Roosevelt Roads has been the focus of several development attempts over the years, however, none of those plans have materialized. 

Despite the facility’s ability to support the Trump Administration’s current efforts, sources from the Defense Department reveal the Navy has no immediate plans to permanently use Roosevelt Roads. Yet, with the Trump Administration giving no timeline for its Caribbean operation, it appears Roosevelt Roads will continue to be a very active facility for the U.S. military in the short term.