Under the dictatorship of General Franco, the Madrid Pacts were signed in September 1953, by which Spain allowed the United States to install four North American bases in Spanish territory, one of which would be the Rota naval base, located between this Cadiz municipality and Puerto de Santa María -an area of high strategic value during the Cold War-, in exchange for economic and military aid.
Since 2014 and 2015, the base has housed four US destroyers, which are a key part of NATO's anti-missile system to protect European allies from the threat posed by the proliferation of ballistic missiles. In the coming years, subject to approval by the Council of Ministers and Parliament, two more ships will be installed, which will intensify Spain's role in NATO's anti-missile system.
The US already announced in March that the Rota base was ready to host two other destroyer ships. Then, the main NATO military commander and head of the US European Command (EUCOM), General Tod Wolters, indicated that the infrastructure was already prepared to host those two destroyers in an appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee. of the US to explain the measures taken against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This presence will lead to an increase of 600 soldiers and will revitalize the activity of a base that has a privileged geostrategic location. To make the extension of the naval reception effective, Spain and the US must modify the bilateral agreement that regulates the US military presence in the Cadiz base and in the Morón de la Frontera (Seville), an agreement that dates from 1988, then signed by Presidents Felipe González and Ronald Reagan, and which expired in May 2021, but which has been automatically extended, now until May 2023.
In accordance with the current international agreements in force, Spain may not in any case recover the use of the air-naval base, if it wishes, before September 9, 2024, after notifying the United States, which must be done no later than September 9. March 2023.
In recent years, the future of the Rota military base has been surrounded by rumors about a possible transfer of military units to Morocco, however, coinciding with the arrival of the Biden administration, steps in the opposite direction have been consolidated. . First, with the US decision to award the Navantia company the contract until 2028 to repair and maintain the destroyers and other ships deployed at the base, and now with the decision to reinforce NATO's anti-missile shield with two destroyers .
Shared by the Spanish Navy and the US VI Fleet, the Rota base covers an area of 2,428 hectares, of which 2,023.4 are under US control. The base has one of the landing strips and longest takeoff in Europe. Adding the Spanish and North American facilities, some 9,500 people work at the base.
There are about 2,000 US citizens living on the base, including civilian and military personnel and their families. In addition, there are others who reside in Rota and El Puerto de Santa María and, to a lesser extent, in other nearby cities, generating wealth estimated at 444 million euros per year in 2019.4
The use of the Spanish base is joint, remaining under the Spanish flag and under the command of a Spanish rear admiral. The Spanish Navy is responsible for the external security of the base, and both navies (Spanish and US) are responsible for internal security with a joint military police force (often seen from the road around the perimeter).
In 2011, the offer by the first Rajoy government to hide the passage of nuclear submarines through it became known.
Equipped with the AEGIS radar system, the US destroyers represent the United States' contribution to the NATO missile defense architecture that the alliance agreed to develop during the Lisbon Summit in November 2010 to protect European allies against potential threats from the proliferation of ballistic missiles.
Rota has participated in this ballistic missile defense program since 2013, which allows the stationing of the four US Navy destroyers, the first of which (the USS Donald Cook) arrived at the base in February 2014.
On June 23, the USS Paul Ignatius, the newest ship that the US Naval Forces had deployed in Europe, settled in Rota to form part of the NATO anti-missile shield.
The ship, which arrived at Rota within one of scheduled rotations of four destroyers based at the base, is the second of eight Flight IIA "technology insertion" ships, bringing enhanced capability and technological advances to the US Naval Forces Europe and Destroyer Squadron 60, the US Navy reported in a press release.
Paul Ignatius is the 67th Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, capable of missions ranging from maritime control and defense capabilities to peacetime presence and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. . These ships have the flexibility to operate in the waters of Europe and Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to the Arctic Circle.
Since 1985, various groups advocating pacifism have staged annual marches protesting the presence of US forces and Spanish war material in the port. The demonstrations run through the streets of the town until they end at one of the access doors to the naval complex facilities, where representatives of the groups read proclamations in favor of peace, freedom and in defense of peoples from all over the world.
The protests against the base cause some controversy among the residents of the town, polarizing them into two positions, for and against, since it generates many jobs and wealth, as a result of the money that the military and the Spanish administrations spend in that area. and American.
