The air traffic control tower at Morón Air Base, Spain, as seen on March 29, 2022. (Robert McIlrath/U.S. Air Force)
NAPLES, Italy — The U.S. could lose vital leverage needed in any potential conflict with China should it choose to reduce or eliminate its military footprint in Spain, an analyst says.
Naval Station Rota and Morón Air Base, both in Spain’s southern region of Andalusia, offer sizeable strategic and logistical advantages for U.S. military operations in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Those benefits include proximity to the Strait of Gibraltar, a strategic chokepoint and gateway to the Mediterranean Sea that supports submarine and electromagnetic surveillance capabilities, among other assets, said Yago Rodriguez, director of The Political Room, a Madrid-based independent media outlet focused on international political analysis.
Sailors assigned to Naval Station Rota, Spain, stand in formation during a change of command ceremony on July 14, 2022. (U.S. Navy)
A U.S. decision to leave the jointly-run military outposts in Spain would be conceivable only if America accepts “that it will cease to be a global power in favor of pursuing an isolationist policy,” Rodriguez said.
That decision “would prevent it from demanding European support to forge a united front against China,” he added.
Tensions between America and Spain have increased in recent weeks as the Spanish government in early March denied the use of Rota and Morón — and later its airspace — for U.S. operations against Iran.
The actions, along with NATO’s failure to join the U.S. fight against Tehran, have drawn sharp criticism from President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, neither of whom has explicitly said America would leave Spain.
But in an interview published earlier this week, Trump told a British newspaper he was seriously considering withdrawing the U.S. from NATO. Rubio also blasted Spain’s decisions Monday, saying U.S. involvement in the alliance needs to be “reexamined.”
That reassessment likely will come at the end of hostilities with Iran and could lead to a crisis between the U.S. and Spain, which have enjoyed a strong, mutually beneficial security and economic relationship for more than seven decades, Rodriguez said.
He characterized the risk of a potential rupture as “probably the greatest in the history of Spanish-American relations,” although it was uncertain if the situation would reach a breaking point.
Situated along Spain’s southern coast near the Strait of Gibraltar, NS Rota is home to five Navy destroyers that, in coordination with ashore facilities, form a central component of European ballistic missile defense. A sixth destroyer is slated to join the group this fall.
The destroyers’ strategic location at Rota allows for a quick U.S. response to trouble spots in the eastern Mediterranean, Red Sea and Persian Gulf, said Jan van Tol, a retired Navy captain and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington.
He added that the destroyers’ capabilities have been critical in the air and missile defense of Israel and operations in the Red Sea in recent years.
Rota has far more substantial naval and air facilities and logistics support, such as that needed for weapons and fuel, than Naval Support Activity Souda Bay on the Greek island of Crete, van Tol said. Rota’s location also makes it significantly less vulnerable to potential missile attacks from adversaries, he said.
The Navy also benefits from low-cost maintenance and repairs for its vessels available at Rota, Rodriguez pointed out.
Morón, about 68 miles northeast of Rota near Seville, is home to the 469th Air Base Squadron, operating under the 86th Airlift Wing in Ramstein, Germany.
It is strategically located near the Mediterranean and Middle East, offering a vital link for air operations moving east from the U.S. with its large flight line, lengthy runway and aircraft refueling systems, according to the Air Force.
It’s also home to U.S. Africa Command’s Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force, deployed to conduct crisis-response and theater-security operations in Africa, among other tasks.
U.S. facilities in Spain, mainly Rota and Morón, would be hard, expensive and slow to replace, particularly in the current political environment, van Tol said, adding that the bases “contribute importantly not only for U.S. national purposes but also to NATO alliance missions.”
A loss of U.S. presence in Spain also could pose serious security and economic issues for the country. For example, it could potentially impact Spain’s ability to protect the Canary Islands, and the north Africa coastal communities of Ceuta and Melilla from Moroccan ambitions, Rodriguez said.
The agreements at Rota and Morón are not simply about defense, James Costos, a former U.S. ambassador to Spain, wrote last month in an opinion piece published in the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
They also are about protecting the democratic values, human rights, economic opportunity, and international stability that allow societies to thrive and ensure the safety of citizens on both sides of the Atlantic, Costos wrote.
“In that shared mission, Spain and the United States remain indispensable partners,” he wrote.
