The U.S. Coast Guard has shifted six patrol ships from the Middle East to the western Pacific, giving Washington another tool to counter China’s increasingly aggressive maritime presence in the region. The six 154-foot fast-response cutters are now working from Singapore and Subic Bay in the Philippines as part of the Coast Guard’s reimagined Expeditionary Cutter Squadron, which can be deployed around the world, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The cutters are approved to operate from the two locations through at least September. While larger Coast Guard cutters have previously visited Subic Bay, this marks the first time the service’s smaller fast-response cutters have operated from the former U.S. military base. The Coast Guard said command and logistics for the ships are being handled from Singapore, while the vessels rotate through Subic Bay on the Philippine island of Luzon. Their arrival comes as the United States expands its presence across the Indo-Pacific in an effort to deter China from moving against Taiwan or seizing disputed territory in the South China Sea. Beijing has increasingly relied on its coast guard to enforce its sweeping territorial claims. Chinese vessels have intercepted Philippine ships attempting to reach military outposts and fishing grounds, at times using water cannons and other pressure tactics to turn them away. Operating from Singapore and the Philippines will place the American cutters closer to some of the region’s most contested waters. The ships are supporting U.S. Pacific Command, which oversees American military operations across an area covering roughly half the earth’s surface, from the waters off the U.S. West Coast to the western border of India. The deployment could also help maintain an American presence in the Pacific while U.S. Navy ships remain in high demand in the Middle East following the war with Iran. “The Coast Guard is one way of maintaining a U.S. presence when the U.S. Navy is clearly much in demand in the Strait of Hormuz and the Middle East,” Euan Graham, a nonresident senior fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told the Journal. The Coast Guard’s law enforcement, maritime security, and search-and-rescue missions may also make it a more acceptable partner for countries that are wary of hosting an overt American military presence. That could include Vietnam and Pacific island nations without their own militaries. The cutters were previously stationed in Bahrain, where Coast Guard ships have operated since the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In recent years, they helped intercept weapons and drug shipments in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. The ships were moved out of Bahrain as hostilities between the United States and Iran escalated earlier this year because they are not equipped with missile-defense systems. China, meanwhile, has invested heavily in its coast guard, adding larger ships with heavier weapons that can remain at sea for longer periods. Its fleet includes the world’s largest patrol vessels and operates alongside the Chinese navy and a maritime militia made up partly of fishing vessels that sometimes carry out missions for Beijing. The U.S. Coast Guard faces its own challenges, including aging ships, delays in the production of new vessels, and a manpower shortage. Under its Force Design 2028 strategy, the service plans to increase its military workforce by 15,000 from the roughly 46,000 active-duty and reserve personnel it had in 2024. Coast Guard recruitment in 2025 reached its highest level in decades, while Congress authorized roughly $25 billion for new vessels, aircraft, and other investments.