The Pentagon has certain rights of use over 3,800 hectares of land in Spain, which include the Rota air-naval base (Cádiz) with 2,400 hectares, and the Morón airfield (Seville), both in joint use with Spanish forces, and with an average of 7,000 North American soldiers assigned in them and just under 6,000 Spanish workers. They are two of the most valuable properties that the United States has in its extensive military deployment throughout the world. And also the first two military complexes that an ally has denied to the Trump administration for use in its war against Iran.
The diplomatic tension between the United States and Spain revolves around these two bases and Madrid’s veto. Donald Trumpupset and sometimes responding to provocative questions, has reiterated that the United States would see it “reasonable” to abandon Rota and Morón –as various American ultra figures demand from him- although other times he has assured that the US I would use the bases “if we wanted.”
The opposition of PP and Vox to the Sánchez Government hints at the danger that Morocco will accept the transfer that Trump threatens. But it is very likely that the North American rear admiral did not exaggerate. Brad Rosen when, last September, he visited Rota. The head of the US naval command for Europe and Africa, before his military compatriots stationed there, called Rota a “gateway to the Mediterranean”, a “force multiplier” capable of rapidly deploying and supporting combat-ready forces on land, air and sea.”
He’s not the only one. Rota and Morón are considered by the Pentagon and NATO to be two crucial points of the European defense architecture and of any major Western military action in Africa. Of catapults for projections over the Middle East There has been less talk… until this Gulf War. Although also last June, when there was a change in the US command of Rota. The newly arrived captain, Charles A. Chmielak, thirty-fifth in the base’s history, committed to “maintain the strong relationship with our Spanish hosts and allies” in a facility that the Pentagon then described as “a strategic center for operations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.”
Combat Multiplier
“The bases are there and will continue, because they have been there for more than 40 years and because they are used for many other missions,” Defense Minister Margarita Robles said this Tuesday, who does not foresee the US leaving Rota and Morón.
Last February, the Pentagon released information about the visit to Rota by the US Navy Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle. He came with his wife, Donaand received them Spanish Vice Admiral Rubén Rodríguez Peñahead of Arsenal de Cádiz. There were 22 days left before, by surprise and without informing Spain, the United States would begin to bomb Iran with Israel.
After a month of war, “in Rota the climate remains the same, regardless of the politicians,” an important Navy officer assures this newspaper. “Working with our Spanish hosts and NATO allies builds trust, interoperability. And that relationship is a combat multiplier,” Caudle told Rota officials during his February visit. For the US Navy chief of operations, “Rota is not just another Navy installation, it is one of our most important strategic vanguard positions in Europe.”
The American destroyer USS Bulkeley docks in Rota. / Román Ríos – EFE
In April 2019, having just come to power, Sánchez government that today is arguing with Trump’sa tribune of the American Admiral James G. Foggo III in the publications of Atlantic Council glossed the importance of Rota: “Among the best examples of naval interoperability in action is our relationship with Spain, our ally of NATO and host country,” it said.
Leaving Rota, the frigate Méndez Núñez set sail to escort the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln around the world.
Why Broken
Rota was already a key factor when NATO members They promoted the entry of Spain into the Alliancein 1982. The Cádiz base offers capabilities far superior to those that the US Navy could find in Gibraltar, for example.
But Rota is not valued only for its air-naval potential, but also as leg of the European anti-ballistic missile shield. That shield is based on Aegisan American system of combining data, radar and weapons that has no rival, and with which they are equipped with four American destroyers moored in Rota and the Spanish F-100 frigates.
An open NATO document reflects since 2016 the value of Rota for the Alliance. It is a report on the concepto BMD, la Ballistic Missile Defence, one of the permanent missions of the Alliance – says the report – in the face of the “devastating impact” of ballistic missiles that “many countries near NATO territory possess.”
The King, with Spanish soldiers at the Rota base during the Navy’s Flotex exercises in 2022. / Román Ríos – EFE
NATO bases its defense on nuclear deterrence, its conventional forces, its space and cyber capabilities… and the BMD. On this flank it is essential Rota to protect southern Europe with US and Spanish ships with “multi-mission Aegis capability,” the document says. That ability is in Rota from a bilateral agreement between the United States and Spain signed in October 2011. The other legs of the shield are Germany – coordination center in Ramstein -, Türkiye – a radar -, Romania and Poland, both with sensors and anti-missile missiles.
Why Moron
Depending on how stable this part of the world is, the Sevillian base of Morón de la Frontera is or is not a backwater. Headquarters of the Eurofighter fighters of the 11th Wing of the Air and Space Armyits runways are packed with planes and its accommodation is filled with Marines and USAF airmen when major deterrence maneuvers are held in Europe and Africa.
The main virtue recognized by Morón is his scalabilityhow it can accommodate large contingents in “hub with Rota”, explains the aforementioned Navy source. The Pentagon left Torrejón and left Zaragoza, but remained in southern Spain what in military terms is considered naval air huba concept used in various documents on North American foreign deployment.
Morón also recorded a great activity of the North American BTF, the Bomber Task Force or bomber divisionin the previous Gulf wars. On this occasion, half a dozen large American air refueling planes have had to leave the base to look for other runways in Europe, due to the veto of the Government of Spain, which is not the first, since there was already another one from the government of Felipe González in 1989 to use the base to punish Libya.
A Spanish Eurofighter fighter begins taxiing for takeoff at the Morón base. / Julio Muñoz EFE
During the Cold War, the bases of Torrejón and Zaragoza had the leading role in Spain, and Morón specialized in support: tanker planes and freighters for air transport of soldiers and materiala mission in which he would excel again in this century, during the multinational wars against Daesh in Iraq and the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
A study on the strategic relevance of Morón prepared for the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies (IEEE) by experts Mario Guillamó, Rocío Vales and Guillem Colomrecalled in 2022 how in 1991 the base housed “a wing of B-52 Stratofortress bombers to be used against Iraq”. Also in the Kosovo war, when NATO hit SerbiaMorón was a base for refueling the fighters.
This study will consider the two bases together, as an axis, the same tool, the almost 4,000 Spanish hectares in which the US military is based; Rota and Morón as “first-order air hub for the United States”, even if the Pentagon is now looking towards the Indo-Pacific.
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