The expansion of the military base at Kogălniceanu, a topic of interest for the Russian press

The works on the expansion of the military base at Mihail Kogălniceanu have recently started, and the media from our country (Euronews Romania, ProTV and CNN Antena 3) stated that the future military base will be served by 10,000 people. The information was immediately picked up yesterday by the Russian newspaper Kommersant, which notes that the largest NATO base in Europe is being built in Romania, that it will be served by 10,000 employees and that the construction of the entire infrastructure amounts to 2.5 billion euros, according to the data published by the mass media in our country.

Those from Kommersant say: "The base, with an area of 2800 hectares, will be built by expanding the already existing NATO air base at "Mihail Kogălniceanu". The new base will house runways, weapons platforms, hangars for military aircraft, as well as schools, kindergartens, shops and a hospital. Romanian expert Dorin Popescu claims that the decision to build the base was taken against the background of the military conflict in Ukraine, which he called long-term. At the Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base, approximately 5,000 military personnel are currently stationed, most of them American".

However, the expert cited by the Russian journalists is in error, because the normative act that established the expansion of the Mihail Kogălniceanu military base dates back to 2020, i.e. two years before the illegal launch of the aggression in Ukraine by the Russian Federation. It is about GD 23/2020 adopted by the Orban government, which establishes the initiation of the expropriation procedures of the privately owned buildings that constitute the expropriation corridor of the public utility work of national interest "Infrastructure of the 57th Air Base from Barracks 888 Mihail Kogălniceanu". The normative act adopted by the Orban Cabinet was based on GD 781/2019 by which the technical-economic indicators for the realization of the respective project had been approved.

In the substantiation note of HG 23/2020, no figure is submitted regarding the personnel who will serve the future military base, but it is shown that the objectives of the future military base are: achieving the capacities and capabilities necessary to fulfill the entire spectrum of combat missions specific to the multirole aircraft ; defense of the airspace, assigned areas and objectives and direct defense of the military airfield area; performing flight missions with maximum efficiency and accuracy; carrying out air actions independently or together with the other categories of army forces; the possibility of the rapid execution of the maneuver of forces and means and the resumption of the execution of combat missions from the reserve location in a short time; ensuring a short aircraft training interval between missions with a minimum number of personnel and equipment; providing the necessary facilities to operate on and from this airfield with tactical and operational strategic transport aircraft.

The cited document also states: "The real estate investment objective "Infrastructure of the 57th Air Base from the 888 Mihail Kogălniceanu Barracks" will include building works and constructions with related facilities, military installations with a protective role (barricades, buttresses, etc.), fences, roads and platforms, deviations of existing networks and design of new water, sewage, heating, gas, etc. networks, restoration and resizing of connections and resizing of gas regulation-measuring stations. The investment will be structured in objects that correspond to certain functional-operational areas, as follows:

- Operational area and aircraft stationary area and aviation maintenance;

- RSOM area;

- Helicopter area;

- Ground-based air defense systems area;

- CARGO area;

- Aviation ammunition storage area;

- Park area with military equipment;

- Fuel-lubricant storage area;

- Social and administrative area;

- Ground forces, armored forces, tanks training area;

- Connections, connections and external networks;

- Flight simulator area;

- Crash and fire station area;

- Land transit area;

- Data voice;

- Beacon and radio navigation systems;

- Force protection, SISOM, TEMPEST;

- Logistics transit area;

- Hot Cargo Zone".

Nothing about the 10,000 soldiers. However, sources from energy investors recently said, at an informal meeting, that in the Dobrogea area the Ministry of National Defense no longer grants approvals for onshore energy projects, because the Mihail Kogălniceanu air base is expanding, it will reach the level brigade and will number approximately 30,000 soldiers, without providing any evidence in this regard.

It is certain that the works on the new NATO facility have begun, that they were started legislatively before the current war in Ukraine and were based, according to the same substantiation note, on strengthening the status of our country as a pole of stability on the eastern flank of the European Union and NATO , including in military terms, by augmenting and improving lack of armed intervention capacity.