Military Airlift

The Pentagon increasingly relies on its global network of "en route bases" to provide logistical support to military airlift aircraft during contingencies. According to Air Mobility Command documents, two en route bases in Spain--Torrejon and Zaragoza--supported about half of the Air Mobility Command's airlift missions during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. According to Spanish government officials, however, Torrejon Air Base's proximity to Madrid makes its use by the U.S. military highly visible and politically sensitive. This report discusses the (1) future use of Torrejon Air Base in Spain for airlift operations, (2) cost savings that would be realized if the Air Mobility Command's presence at that base were ended, and (3) alternatives that the Air Mobility Command is considering for the current use of Torrejon Air Base.

GAO noted that: (1) the future use of Torrejon Air Base by the Air Mobility Command is questionable; (2) Department of Defense, State Department, and U.S. Embassy officials acknowledge that the government of Spain does not want the Command to use Torrejon Air Base to support future airlift missions; (3) the Spanish government suggested that the Command relocate its personnel stationed at Torrejon to another base in Spain; (4) although the Command did not relocate its civilian and military personnel, in July 1996 the U.S. Transportation Command terminated a planned fuel system upgrade at the base for which it had already spent $800,000 and reprogrammed the remaining $2.5 million for other needs; (5) discontinuing operations at Torrejon and eliminating both civilian and military positions would result in an annual savings of $515,000; (6) the Air Mobility Command could also save about $200,000 annually in operations and maintenance costs by discontinuing its operations at Torrejon and eliminating its civilian positions; (7) these savings would continue to accrue, at a minimum, until an alternative location is selected to fill the capacity viewed as lost by discontinuing operations at Torrejon; (8) the Command could save an additional $315,000 in military personnel costs if it eliminated the military positions from the force structure; (9) the Command has short-term alternatives to the use of Torrejon; (10) these alternatives include relying on the four key European bases (Mildenhall Air Base, England, Moron Air Base, Spain, and Rhein Main and Ramstein Air Bases, Germany) to the maximum extent possible and using other locations, as necessary; (11) additionally, the Command, in conjunction with officials from the U.S. Transportation Command and U.S. Air Forces, Europe, is considering three long-term alternatives to make the en route system capable of carrying out its peacetime and wartime missions and replace the capability provided by Torrejon; (12) these alternatives include adding limited capability to Rota Naval Air Station and reopening and enhancing Zaragoza Air Base, Spain, significantly enhancing Rota Naval Air Station, Spain, and adding limited capability to Fairford Air Base, England, and reopening and enhancing Zaragoza and adding limited capability to Fairford; (13) however, the Spanish government, which has final approval over all activities at the bases in Spain, delayed the approval of site surveys at Rota Naval Air Station and Zaragoza because of political issues; and (14) as of April 1997, the Air Force had completed the site survey at Rota Naval Air Station but had not completed the survey at Zaragoza Air Base.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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