Our bases in eastern Europe are designed to function at a low level until a crisis and then host a surge of personnel who will stage through that base and intervene in some crisis in the Middle East or Central Asia.
We are going to exercise in new bases in Romania:
Besides Mihail Kogalniceanu, the bases are also to be located at Babadag in the southeast, Smardan in the south and Cincu in central Romania.
Mihail Kogalniceanu was also used as a US base from February to June 2003 for operations related to the Iraq war.
A military exercise involving 200 troops and 14 combat planes is planned for the end of April at the base, said Cristina Dumitrescu, spokeswoman for the Romanian defense ministry.
I know I am looking for signs of intervening in Iran, so I'll simply state that we should have three carriers available in the Arabian Sea region in the latter half of April. It is likely just a coincidence.
