NATO to Ask Italy to Allow U.S. Air Base, Pentagon Official Says

Defense ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, meeting in Brussels this week, are expected to formally ask Italy to provide a base for a U.S. jet fighter wing that recently was ordered to leave Spain, the Pentagon’s second-ranking official told Congress on Tuesday.

A move toward resolving the fate of the wing, in the light of U.S. threats to disband it if a new base is not found soon, would defuse a potentially divisive squabble among NATO allies on the eve of the U.S.-Soviet summit meeting.

Under the proposal, to be taken up by the NATO Planning Committee on Thursday and Friday, the allies would share the cost of relocating the 72 F-16 fighters from the Torrejon base in Spain to a site in Italy, Deputy Defense Secretary William H. Taft IV said. By some Pentagon estimates, the move could cost more than $500 million.

Condition of Membership

In January, Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez told Washington that the U.S. planes would have to leave within three years as a condition of Spain’s continued membership in NATO. The American military presence had been a controversial political issue there, seen by some as an affront to the nation’s sovereignty.

The ultimatum has threatened to touch off an angry row among the NATO allies over how to fill the hole left in the defense of Southern Europe.

Pentagon officials say the Italian government has indicated that it would be willing to accommodate the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing but has specified that the request come from the alliance as a whole, rather than just from the United States, to help blunt nationalist opposition.

“That’s what Italy feels it needs to make this move palatable to its Parliament,” one defense official said. “It’s good for Italy’s ego and for its internal politics.”

It is not clear how the costs would be apportioned, however. Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci notified NATO, which is contending with deep budget cuts of its own, that the United States would dismantle the air wing unless all 16 allied nations promise to pay the cost of establishing a new European base for the unit.

American military teams have spent months surveying prospective sites proposed by the Italian government, including Aviano Air Base in the northeast, Comiso Air Base on the island of Sicily and several places in the Calabria region at the toe of the Italian boot.

Taft visited Italy in early May on a five-day swing through Europe, during which he urged the allies to contribute more toward their defense.