The Defense Department is consolidating American forces in Europe to save what Pentagon officials say will be about $500 million a year while not reducing the number of American military personnel — some 67,000 — who are currently there.
Defense officials said they are ending longstanding operations at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall, a British air base northeast of London in Suffolk where spy planes and other aircraft have been based. But that move, which withdraws some 3,200 military personnel and their families from the base, will be partially offset by the selection of another British installation, Royal Air Force Base Lakenheath, also in Suffolk, as home to the first F-35 squadron in Europe.
The moves will occur over the next several years.
The F-35, the Pentagon’s fifth-generation stealth fighter jet, “gives teeth to our ability to support collective defense of Europe and its partners,” Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of United States Air Forces in Europe and of Air Forces Africa, said in a statement.
The first F-35s will arrive in Britain in 2020, replacing F-15 fighter jets.
Some 14 other European sites will be handed back to their home governments as well, defense officials said, including several facilities in Germany and Portugal, where 500 American military personnel will be withdrawn from Lajes Field in the Azores.
“These decisions will produce savings that will enable us to maintain a robust force presence in Europe,” Derek Chollet, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, told reporters during a Pentagon news briefing on Thursday.
Defense officials said more American troops would be stationed in Germany and Italy as the United States sought to counter a more aggressive Russia. “This transformation of our infrastructure will help maximize our military capabilities in Europe and help strengthen our important European partnerships, so that we can best support our NATO allies and partners in the region,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement.
Even as the American military is cutting the number of its forces at permanent bases in Europe, it is rotating more forces in and out of the region, particularly in Eastern Europe and the Baltics.
