U.S. to cut European military bases as budgets shrink

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.S. to cut European military bases as budgets shrink

BY DAVID ALEXANDER
WASHINGTON Thu Jan 8, 2015 12:50pm EST

(Reuters) - Facing tight budgets and a shrinking military, the United States said on Thursday it was ending operations at an air base in Britain and handing it and 14 other sites in Europe back to their home governments.

The moves were projected to save $500 million a year. In the biggest one, the Pentagon said it would leave RAF Mildenhall northeast of London, home to tanker, reconnaissance and special operations aircraft, and withdraw 3,200 military personnel and their families over the next several years.

Several facilities in Germany would be closed, but overall U.S. troop numbers there were expected to rise a few hundred. Some 500 U.S. personnel would be withdrawn from Lajes Field in the Azores, reducing U.S. troop numbers in Portugal. Some 300 troops would be shifted from Germany to Italy.

Assistant Defense Secretary Derek Chollet said the changes in half a dozen European countries would consolidate and reduce support infrastructure but would not affect the U.S. military's operational capacity in the region.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/08/us-usa-defense-europe-idUSKBN0KH18O20150108

[MADem]

1. Oh well...buh-bye MAC flights outta Mildenhall....

Hello Lakenheath!

[arcane1]

2. $500 million a year is chump change to the Pentagon, but I'll take what I can get.

Hopefully this is the beginning of HUGE cuts!

[gladium et scutum]

3. Probably

several hundred facilities in the continental U.S. that could be cut, combined or otherwise reduced. DOD has been trying to do that for years. Our Congress will not let them. Every congressmen defends the military property in his district because it means jobs for his constituents. That is why they had to resort to the BRAC
system many years back. Say So over base closing needs to be removed from Congress altogether.