Carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) pulled in for a liberty call at the Port Klang Cruise Terminal in Malaysia on Saturday, a one-time key base of operations, then known as the Glenn Cruise Terminal, for Malaysian businessman Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis and his company Glenn Defense Marine Asia.
Lincoln’s visit marked the first time in 12 years that a U.S. carrier pulled into the cruise terminal, the last time being USS George Washington (CVN-73) and its carrier strike group escorts, which dropped in on Oct. 7, 2012, only a few days after USS John C. Stennis (CVN-73) pulled into Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia for a port visit, marking a rare occasion when a country hosted back-to-back port calls by U.S. carriers. Stennis’ visit allowed the U.S. to send a message to China by having a carrier visit near the disputed Spratly Islands.
A defense official told USNI News that Abraham Lincoln’s port call was the result of a short timeframe for finding berthing after the carrier’s departure from U.S. Central Command. Officials considered Singapore’s Changi Naval Base, but the shipping lanes for entry to Singapore’s ports were more congested than usual and logistics and husbanding services companies were also tied up.
The high level of merchant shipping around Singapore, which has been ongoing since July of this year, is due to ships arriving off schedule in Asia because they reroute to avoid Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
Abraham Lincoln’s visit would allow the U.S. to demonstrate its commitment to Malaysia and reduce the stigma created by the scandal around the cruise terminal, sources in the region told USNI News. The port call would also pave the way for future carrier and ship visits to the cruise terminal next year, the sources told USNI News.
Malaysia is the chair for 2025 for the Association of South East Asian Nations with the majority of ASEAN events, which are expected to take place around the capital of Kuala Lumpur. With the cruise terminal located around 25 miles away from Kuala Lumpur, carrier visits there in 2025 will enable the U.S. to push soft power diplomacy engagements with Malaysia’s political and military leadership.
The Port Klang Cruise Terminal began as the Star Cruise Terminal before GDMA acquired it in 2009 for $53.2 million and renamed it Glenn Cruise Terminal. The area lies astride the strategic Strait of Malacca, which is a regular transit route for West Coast-based CSGs heading to and from the Middle East.
The 2009 acquisition happened because the ports in Port Klang were reluctant to host U.S carriers and their escorts for port visits, sources said at the time. Port officials were unhappy over the disruption to their commercial operations due to the berthing period and the force protection measures for the U.S. Navy ships.
Francis, who was already providing husbanding services to the Navy, offered to solve the problem by purchasing the cruise terminal, when Star Cruise was looking to divest the facility. The terminal was largely underutilized by cruise ships and provided the U.S. Navy a secure facility. That was in contrast to the commercial ports, which had myriad vehicles coming in and out as part of port business. An added bonus was that the Royal Malaysian Navy National Hydrography Centre is nearby. The location was still a naval base with sufficient armed naval personnel to augment U.S. force protection measures carried out by the ships’ security detachment and NCIS agents.
Francis then began directing carrier visits to the Glenn Cruise Terminal, with the terminal averaging up to two carrier visits per year. He also supported carrier visits, along with other U.S. Navy ship visits, to other countries such as Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand. Though GDMA was primarily based in Singapore and Francis’s home was also there, he often shuttled to Kuala Lumpur, regularly attending embassy functions and every U.S. Navy ship visit to the cruise terminal.
Cruise ship operations also continued and ships from other navies, such as the French Navy, Indian Navy and Republic of Korea Navy, also docked there, but it’s unclear whether these navies were subjected to the same inflated charges that GDMA billed the U.S. Navy. USNI News was informed at the time that Japan declined to have its ships dock there since GDMA insisted that only GDMA and its subcontractors could provide services to ships berthed at the terminal and the Japanese embassy was not allowed to contract other companies to do so if Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships docked there.
Then Navy Secretary Ray Mabus put the Glenn Cruise Terminal out of bounds for U.S Navy ships following Francis’s arrest in San Diego in September 2013. A carrier visit to the Glenn Cruise Terminal had been scheduled for late 2013, but was cancelled following Francis’s arrest.
The cruise terminal did continue to receive foreign warships such as Bangladesh Navy frigate BNS Somudra Joy (F28), which is the ex-USCGC Jarvis (WHEC-725), in December 2013 during its homeward voyage from the U.S following its transfer. The terminal also hosted U.K. Royal Navy frigate HMS Daring (D32) in January 2014. USNI News was present at both visits, seeing the Glenn Cruise Terminal operating with reduced staffing and its fleet of Hummers used for VIP transportation covered under tarpaulin and ringed off.
In July 2014, Malaysia’s Boustead Holdings acquired the terminal from GDMA, which was then in receivership, and renamed the terminal as the Boustead Cruise Centre, though the ban on U.S. Navy ships visiting the terminal remained until 2017, when Expeditionary Fast Transport ship USNS Fall River (T-EPF 4) docked in April as part of Pacific Partnership 2017.
Meanwhile, in September 2015, China used the cruise terminal to stage from for its inaugural peace and friendship bilateral military exercise in Malaysia, deploying a naval task group comprising of People’s Liberation Army Navy destroyer CNS Lanzhou (170), frigate CNS Yueyang (575) and hospital ship Peace Ark (866). Subsequently, the PLAN’s Chinese Naval Escort Task Forces made regular port calls there on the return voyage to China from the Gulf of Aden.
While the U.S. Navy lifted its ban on the cruise terminal in 2017, scheduling issues and the service’s reluctance to dock again at the former GDMA terminal meant American carriers were still not visiting the terminal. By 2019, the terminal was owned by a joint venture between North Port Malaysia and Westport Malaysia and renamed as the Port Klang Cruise Terminal. The Covid-19 pandemic and Malaysia’s tight restrictions on foreign entry at that time also meant U.S. Navy ships could not call there. U.S. Navy ship visits to Port Klang Cruise Terminal resumed with U.S. 7th Fleet command ship USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) docking there in July of this year.
Adding to the difficulties of resuming carrier visits to Malaysia was the fact that GDMA’s monopoly of the husbanding business for U.S. Navy ships meant that no other company could support carriers visiting the country until recently. USNI News understands that Inchcape Shipping Services was appointed as the lead agent for Abraham Lincoln’s visit, with various husbanding, logistics support and services companies carrying out different portions of operations, indicating that the U.S. Navy is ensuring that no single company receives the entire contract for services.
The Abraham Lincoln CSG is also operating disaggregated, with USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG-121) conducting a port call to Singapore while USS Spruance (DDG-111) and USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112) stopping in Thailand.\
