NATO Is Building Its Biggest Base in Europe near Bulgaria
The Romanian base of Mihail Kogalniceanu located not far from Bulgaria is becoming the largest NATO air base in Europe, which aims to protect the southeastern flank of the alliance from Russia.
This topic certainly excites Gen Z as young people are increasingly interested in world events and what it might mean for them and the future.
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The construction of the base, which is located in Constanta County and is named after a famous Romanian liberal politician from the 19th century, will cost 2.5 billion dollars. It will have an area of 2.8 thousand hectares and it can hold 10,000 military personnel.
Mihail Kogalniceanu will have new runways, weapons platforms, military aircraft hangars, and modern barracks and training grounds. It will be a real military city because it is planned to have schools, hospitals, kindergartens and shops.
Something that might surprise Gen Z is that the base will be bigger than Rammstein in Germany. Its strategic position contributes to that. It is located only 20 km from the Black Sea coast, 300 km from Odessa and 400 km from the port of Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea.
The battle for control of the Black Sea is becoming increasingly fierce and visible. Its future depends entirely on the fate of the war in Ukraine. The evidence for this has been abundant in the past 2 years and more since the Russian invasion began.
The Black Sea is of key importance to the security of the continent. The concern of Brussels and Washington about the large Russian presence was most seriously manifested when, in December 2022, the US Foreign Policy Committee adopted the Black Sea Security Act which identified the region as an "arena of Russian aggression".
The authorities in Bucharest are aware of the risks of the desire of Moscow to push out the Western presence in the Black Sea and the desire of Russia to make it a "closed sea". For this reason, since January 2023 there have been American reconnaissance aircraft AJAX in Romanian bases which monitor Russian actions in the region and aim to strengthen NATO's defense position in the Black Sea region.
