The base at Crotone is supposed to be a shining example of defense cost-sharing between the United States and its NATO allies. Two years ago Spain ordered the United States to remove its F-16 fighters from the Torrejon Air Base near Madrid by 1992. In time of war the jets–which carry nuclear weapons–would be flown to Italy and Turkey to protect Southern Europe from a Soviet attack. Because of easing superpower tensions and budget cuts, the Pentagon had planned to deactivate the air wing. But the allies, anxious to shore up NATO’s neglected southern flank, pleaded for the planes to remain. NATO even agreed to pay more than half of the cost to build a new base in Europe (Washington’s share would be $320 million). Italy was willing to host the base, which would boost the country’s undeveloped southern region.
From the start, the Crotone project has had its critics. A confidential congressional report recently warned that there may not be enough water for the more than 175 buildings to be constructed on the 2,750-acre site, where summer temperatures reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Congress is grumbling because local farmers have jacked up the price of land NATO must buy to $12,000 an acre. (U.S. farmland averages just under $700 an acre.) And the base is in the heart of Mafia country, just 90 miles northeast of San Luca, Italy’s kidnap capital.
Plans for the new base have also angered archeologists. Crotone is rich in buried artifacts from Greek colonists who settled in southern Italy from the seventh century B.C. “It’s smack in the middle of the area we’re looking at,” complains Jon Morter field director of the University of Texas excavation project at Crotone. “A fair chunk of our study will go up in smoke.”
The biggest problem the Pentagon now faces is convincing Congress that there is any need for F-16s at Crotone at all. “Given the collapse of the,Warsaw Pact, why do we need to build another NATO air base?” asks Sen. Jim Sasser, chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on military construction. “Who are we going to be defending the southern flank from?” Crotone wouldn’t be open until 1996. Meantime, the Pentagon will vacate a cruise-missile base it just finished building in Comiso, Sicily. The Comiso facility, which cost American taxpayers $100 million, is another victim of peace. Its missiles are being removed to comply with the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Although the Defense Department’s estimates showed that relocating the F-16s to Comiso would cost less than a new base at Crotone, the Pentagon balked at the alternative, claiming Comiso was ill suited for fighter jets. But congressional sources say it was the Italian government that vetoed Comiso, fearing that putting F-16s so close to Libya would antagonize Muammar Kaddafi.
Secret report: The Pentagon is lobbying furiously to save the Crotone plan. In a secret report sent to Congress last month, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney warned that the Soviet military capability facing the southern flank hasn’t diminished and may have increased in terms of modern hardware. Though the Pentagon insists publicly that the base’s sole mission is to defend against the Soviets, the F-16s would also be a deterrent in the Middle East. “We wouldn’t advertise that,” said a State Department aide. “But look how close they would be to Tripoli.” For Congress to pull out now, after years of browbeating Europeans to enter into this sort of burden-sharing arrangement, leaves the Pentagon “flabbergasted,” said a senior Defense aide. “Our reputation as the major ally in Europe would be tremendously undercut.”
The Defense Department admits those arguments are changing few minds in Congress, which appears poised to kill the project. Sasser has proposed a scaled-down base at Crotone. But he says even that compromise may not go over with his colleagues, who are being pressured to accept more than 100 base closings at home. “Why in heaven’s name would they want to build an overseas base?” asks a congressional aide. The betting now is that they won’t. No matter what promises government officials may have made to NATO in years past, the archeologists may yet have Crotone to themselves.
