The leadership of the United States plans to transfer additional armed forces to Europe. This is not just about military personnel. The Pentagon intends to increase the number of guided missile destroyers in the region.
On Wednesday, December 18, reports the publication “El Pais”, citing its own sources.
According to media reports, additional American troops will be deployed at the Rota base in the province of Cadiz, Spanish autonomy of Andalusia. At the moment, the US armed forces are already based here, but they plan to double it, turning this military facility into the main US naval base in southern Europe.
In this regard, an additional number of Arleigh Burke class destroyers is planned to be deployed at the Roth base. Now there are four such, and soon their number will increase to six. However, other vessels will be replaced. They will be replaced by modern analogues equipped with helicopters. The Pentagon’s plan will also lead to the deployment of an additional six hundred military personnel and a change in the 1988 US-Spanish agreement, which had previously been rewritten three times.
The source of the publication claims that the Spanish authorities have already agreed to replace the destroyers with modernized vessels. They will begin to arrive at the base in 2020 and the process will last approximately 2 years. At the same time, the US administration plans to begin full-fledged negotiations after a government is formed in the kingdom.
It is worth noting that the limit of the American presence at the Roth base is 5.2 thousand people, of which a thousand are civilian personnel, and the rest are military personnel. According to the source, the Pentagon’s plans will not exceed these restrictions.