U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and officials from the Hungarian Defense Force met at the Kecskemét Air Base in Hungary on July 16 to sign an agreement allowing the U.S. assess to and use of two air bases in the country. The bases are the one the agreement was signed at and the Pápa Air Base.
Army Major General Charles Miller, EUCOM’s director of plans, policy, strategy and capabilities, was quoted by his command’s website as stating: “These agreements allow U.S. forces to access and utilize these air bases in cooperation with the Hungarian Defence Force.” Indicating that securing the bases is not the final stage in bilateral military cooperation, he added, “This signing brings with it new opportunities for even greater collaboration and coordination with our Hungarian Allies.”
The agreement was reached under provisions of the 2019 Defense Cooperation Agreement between the U.S. and Hungary. Similar pacts have been signed with most former members of the long-defunct Warsaw Pact to provide air bases to the U.S. and NATO since 2004. A partial list of such bases will follow.
The American chargé d’dffaires in Budapest, Marc Dillard, affirmed: “This signing demonstrates that the Defense Cooperation Agreement continues to deepen our already robust collective defense cooperation as NATO Allies and helps us prepare for the 21st century security challenges we face together.”
After Hungary joined the military alliance in 1999 the Pápa Air Base was declared a NATO reserve base. It was designated a Main Operating Base and hosted three NATO Strategic Airlift Capability aircraft from 2007 onward.
In 2020 the NATO Support and Procurement Agency completed a project to modernise components of the base. It has hosted C-17 Globemaster III long-range cargo jets as the Heavy Airlift Wing facet of the 12-nation multinational Strategic Airlift Capability, the world’s first multinational strategic airlift operation. Its partners at the time it achieved full operational capability in 2012 were NATO members Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the U.S., as well as (now) NATO Enhanced Opportunities Partners Finland and Sweden. The base and the operation were used extensively for NATO’s war in Afghanistan.
With the acquisition of the two Hungarian bases the U.S, and NATO (they’re truly indistinguishable) have now moved into several air bases in former Warsaw Pact countries since the first round of post-Cold War NATO expansion in 1999.
They include:
- Bulgaria: Bezmer Air Base and Graf Ignatievo Air Base
- Estonia: Ämari Air Base
- Hungary: Kecskemét Air Base and Pápa Air Base
- Lithuania: Šiauliai Air Base
- Poland: Łask Air Base and Malbork Air Base
- Romania: Deveselu Air Base, Mihail Kogălniceanu International Airport and Romanian Air Force 71st Air Base at Câmpia Turzii.
The Deveselu Air Base in Romania was reopened by the U.S. and NATO and now hosts Standard Missile-3 interceptor missiles directly across the Black Sea from Russia. All have been expanding and modernized.
The air force component of NATO’s military buildup along what the military alliance terms its Eastern Flank – which is Russia’s western border – is constantly advancing. Someone in Moscow should be getting the message by now.
The optics are terrible: the US bully strong arms its way into the military bases of former Warsaw Pact countries. Yet, from the point of view of the host countries, the assumption is they have the last word in how these bases are used. These countries have no real defense regardless of what they do. They (probably) do not want to be in the middle of an armed conflict between Russia and NATO. They rationalize their actions as merely allowing US theatrics and they figure that if the US wants to spend money on defense, who are they to stop them. Domestic US infrastructure will continue to degrade, movements such as BLM will continue to spread and grow. Billionaires will continue to enrich themselves in the unquestioned certitude that, when the times comes, “the people” will die for them, whenever that may be required.
Europeans need two more US/NATO bases for war like they need two new holes in the head. Or does it seem like the Europeans lost their minds from too many holes in the head?
These look to be more of Rumsfeld’s “lily pads.”
It is access in case of future need, not an active current base for deployed forces.
This is how the US puts the DoD everywhere. Even the US does not have the forces for 800 bases. But it has the bases ready.
I don’t mean to minimize this. Rather, I think we need to recognize that this is more of the same Rumsfeld behavior that we should see as discredited. Those 800 bases are not strength, they are burden, and make us vulnerable.
Do we want those bases vulnerable to justify WWIII if attacked (falsely, accidentally, or the British wanted to trigger “Operation Unthinkable”)?
The World’s most active Meddler and War Monger, the USA in action as always ….