2024-04-03 16:36:38
A small military town for NATO soldiers is currently being built in Romania. It is a mammoth project from which the Western defense alliance has high hopes.
The change is profound: Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has led to NATO strengthening its flanks like never before. Multinational battle groups are stationed on the alliance’s eastern border in countries such as Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia. With Sweden and Finland, two important members were gained, which will strengthen NATO’s position, especially around the Baltic Sea. And another important milestone is now being laid on the Black Sea.
A small military town is currently being built there. To this end, Romania is expanding its “Mihail Kogălniceanu” air force base near the port city of Constanța. It is a mammoth project – once completed, it will be the largest NATO base in Europe in terms of area.
Romania has long called for a stronger NATO presence. The Romanian political analyst Dorin Popescu explains this in an interview with t-online with the “high level of threat”: “Romania knows the need for an appropriate response to this threat better than any other country.” But how exactly does the expansion work? And what does NATO hope to achieve from this?
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The new NATO base will be twice as big as Ramstein
Construction work began in mid-March, as reported by the Romanian news portal “Euronews”. First of all, it’s about the basic infrastructure, i.e. access roads and the development of a power grid that can withstand the energy needs of the future base. Construction of another runway parallel to the existing one will soon begin. There will also be additional runways and hangars for military aircraft.
Nicolae Crețu, the commander of the base, makes it clear in an interview with “Euronews” what is still needed: “Maintenance halls, fuel storage, ammunition, equipment, aeronautical material, simulators, catering facilities, accommodation, everything is needed to carry out operations and tasks to support a base of this size.” Schools, kindergartens, a clinic and even shops are also to be built there. According to planning, all of this will cost Romania around 2.5 billion euros. Construction is estimated to take up to 20 years.
The size of the future NATO base is unparalleled: more than 10,000 soldiers and their families will be accommodated here, so a total of possibly more than 30,000 people. The area covers almost 3,000 hectares. Several hundred US helicopter squadrons and a Romanian helicopter squadron are already stationed there. NATO is also already using the base for operations to monitor the airspace on the eastern flank.
For comparison: Last summer, more than 9,000 soldiers and around 12,000 relatives lived and worked on an area of around 1,400 hectares in Ramstein. A good 56,000 people live in the entire US military complex around Kaiserslautern (Kaiserslautern Military Community), of which the Ramstein base is only a part. It is the largest US military base outside the United States. However, only Ramstein is used by NATO, the rest of the complex is only used by the US armed forces.
“The security situation has deteriorated alarmingly”
But why is another huge base needed when large structures already exist in Germany? The answer to this question has to do with the war in Ukraine. Because Vladimir Putin shook the European security architecture to its foundations with his invasion of the neighboring country in February 2022.