The Senate voted on Thursday night to confirm Adm. Daryl Caudle as the chief of naval operations after a brief delay from Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK).

When Caudle takes the helm, he will be the first Senate-confirmed chief of naval operations since President Donald Trump fired Adm. Lisa Franchetti in February without explanation. Adm. James Kilby, the vice chief of naval operations, has been in the role in an acting capacity since Franchetti’s dismissal.

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Sullivan briefly held up Caudle’s nomination to pressure the Navy into reopening the Adak naval base, which is located in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska’s coast, Politico reported. He is a strong advocate of reopening the base.

After a conversation with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the senator ultimately withdrew his hold, allowing his nomination to be confirmed.

“Senator Sullivan had a very constructive conversation with the Secretary of Defense, with whom he has a strong relationship,” Amanda Coyle, a Sullivan spokeswoman, told the Washington Examiner. “After the conversation, Senator Sullivan lifted his hold on Admiral Caudle.“

Neither Coyle nor the Department of Defense would say whether they made a deal involving the base.

Sullivan has repeatedly brought up the possibility of reopening the base in several Armed Services Committee hearings this year, often pointing to Russian and Chinese aggression in both the aerial and maritime domains off Alaska’s coasts.

US MILITARY LOOKS TO REOPEN ADAK NAVAL BASE IN ALASKA TO COUNTER PACIFIC THREATS

“This is part of a broader strategic repository that our military needs to really think hard about, and in the Indo-Pacific, to be honest, their strategic thinking has been lazy,” he told the Washington Examiner in May.

At its peak, there were 90,000 troops mobilized to the Aleutian Islands during World War II. U.S. forces on the island were able to launch a successful offensive against the Japanese-held islands of Kiska and Attu in 1943. The base closed in 1997.