\n<\/p>\n
T<\/span>hey are dotted across the UK countryside, often obscured from public view behind highly secured perimeter fences. Technically, they are on British soil, and misleadingly most have \u201cRoyal Air Force\u201d in their name.<\/p>\n But in many respects, these military outposts are under the control of the US president and commander-in-chief.<\/p>\n There are more than 12,000 US military<\/a> personnel stationed in the UK operating from at least 15 bases and facilities.<\/p>\n They play a critical role in US military and intelligence operations, providing launch sites for huge bombers and infrastructure for global spying operations. As of last year, one Suffolk base may now be home to some of the US nuclear arsenal.<\/p>\n The bases also boast some home comforts: RAF Lakenheath has a bowling alley, a Burger King and baseball fields.<\/p>\n The US war with Iran in recent weeks has illustrated the utility of the bases, as waves of military aircraft have taken off from places such as RAF Fairford, in Gloucestershire.<\/p>\n Yet the war is prompting rare questions about the presence \u2013 and purpose \u2013 of such bases on UK soil. For almost three-quarters of a century the British political establishment has viewed them as a cornerstone of the UK\u2019s alliance with the world\u2019s mightiest power.<\/p>\n Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, initially resisted use of the US bases in the Iran conflict, and then insisted they should only be used for \u201climited defensive\u201d purposes.<\/p>\n Threats by the US president, Donald Trump, of military operations that would probably constitute war crimes, his open disdain for the UK and the Nato alliance, and the apparently rapid disintegration of the so-called special relationship, have all served to put these UK-based military installations in the spotlight.<\/p>\n The Green party leader, Zack Polanski, has said the UK should consider closing US bases in Britain as part of a wider dismantling of the military alliance between the two countries. But where are the US military bases? What exactly do they do? And who ultimately controls them?<\/p>\n <\/gu-island><\/p>\n The locations of 15 bases in the UK were disclosed in a Pentagon document that lists all of its bases around the globe. (This figure does not include six other US sites in Britain that are in effect too small to be included in the list.)<\/p>\n With the exception of Lossiemouth in Scotland, all the bases are located in England. Lord Coaker, a British defence minister, told the House of Lords on 24 March<\/a> that there were 12,300 American military and civilian employees spread across the bases and facilities. (This number does not include American military personnel stationed at other UK facilities, such as Nato sites.)<\/p>\n Major bases include RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire, best-known for the controversy over the death of 19-year-old Harry Dunn. He was killed in 2019 when he was hit by a car driven on the wrong side of the road<\/a> by Anne Sacoolas, a US intelligence official whose husband worked on the base.<\/p>\n Croughton is a key communications hub responsible for relaying top-secret material to the US military and intelligence agencies. The CIA has reportedly used<\/a> the base to relay information intercepted by listening stations installed in US embassies around the world.<\/p>\nWhere are they?<\/h2>\n
RAF Fairford<\/h2>\n