The US Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, confirmed ten years ago today (January 5, 2015) the Pentagon’s decision to reduce the US presence at the Lajes Base.
The news follows a statement by the then US Ambassador to Portugal, Robert Sherman, who announced the day before the Pentagon’s plan for a gradual reduction 2015 of civilian and military personnel at the Lajes military base.
The downsizing meant a reduction from 900 to 400 Portuguese civilian workers and from 650 to 165 US civilian and military personnel at a time when Lajes Base was the island’s second-largest employer after the Terceira Island Hospital.
The decision, it was announced, saved the Pentagon around 35 million dollars a year and significantly impacted the local economy, which is still being felt.
The reorganization of the Lajes Base, which should have taken place in 2012/2013, was postponed until 2015/2016 due to strategic issues raised in Congress (but also related to the economic impact of the reduction on the local community).
At the origin of the decision, which eventually went ahead, to reduce the presence in Lajes, as well as at the base of the general reorganization of US forces in the so-called overseas scenarios and especially in Europe, were three central issues, budgetary difficulties, the assumption that Russia would no longer constitute a danger or even a challenge, and the fixation on the Indo-Pacific scenario to counterbalance the rising Chinese power in that area.

The central arguments have been dismantled by a new strategic reality with an impact on the so-called geostrategic space of the Azores, where US interests are being challenged in an environment of competition that is already very significant and is likely to worsen exponentially, involving Russia and China, with Russia’s aggression against Ukraine considered by experts to be one of the consequences of such competition, in this case on a global scale.
US military experts, such as Littleton, the former second-in-command of Lajes, have already stated that the base in Terceira will be the most important base for the US in Europe over the next 20 to 50 years.

In Diário Insular-José Lourenço-director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.