The recent incidents concerning RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire have highlighted that fact that the US military does have quite a significant presence on UK soil. What this presence fully amounts to, though, is unclear.

According to news reports there are “at least” 15 US military bases in the UK, while other sources have the figure at 12 or 13. The UK government says that there are only 11.

In 2024, the Pentagon defence headquarters in the US listed 16 American military locations along with six unspecified “other sites”. This confusion over the number might come from defining the term “US military base”. Some might be seen as actually UK stations, but with a significant presence of US service personnel serving on them.

There are said to be approximately 12,300 US service and non-military personnel from the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), for instance, stationed at these bases. The presence of these bases has, down the years, raised some controversy. Many of us might remember the anti-nuclear Greenham Common Peace Camp protests in the 1980s and 90s.

The US, however, sees them as strategically vital, and the UK government, ever conscious of its need to support its principal Nato military alliance ally, is not going to remove them anytime soon.

The bases are a........

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