You keep the ships in place and fly in the crews:
The U.S. Navy is continuing to expand use of its “Sea Swap” program, by assigning several crews to each of their new Littoral Combat Ships (LCS). The original idea behind Sea Swap was to eliminate the transit time, which can be up to a month, as the warship makes its way out to a far away area (like the Persian Gulf), for a six month tour. With Sea Swap, the ship stays out there for 18-24 months, while the crews do their usual six months at sea before flying home.
I don't know why we don't build modern diesels for use in the Western Pacific and fly in the crews to boats based out of Singapore, Australia, or Japan.
