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List of countries with overseas military bases
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This is a list of countries with overseas military bases.
Background
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Camp Humphreys, the largest United States overseas military base by population, with a combined military and civilian population of 40,000.
Pituffik Space Base, the largest United States overseas military base by area, at 66,000 hectares.[1]
The establishment of military bases abroad enables a country to project power, e.g. to conduct expeditionary warfare, and thereby to influence events abroad. Depending on their size and infrastructure, they can be used as staging areas or for logistical, communications and intelligence support. Many conflicts throughout modern history have resulted in overseas military bases being established in large numbers by world powers; and these bases have helped the countries that have established them to achieve political and military goals.
The United Kingdom and other colonial powers established overseas military bases in many of their colonies during the First and Second World Wars, where useful, and actively sought rights to facilities where needed for strategic reasons. At one time, the establishment of coaling stations for naval ships was important. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union established military bases where they could within their respective spheres of influence, and actively sought influence where needed. More recently, the War on Terror has resulted in overseas military bases being established in the Middle East.
While the overall number of overseas military bases has fallen since 1945, the United States, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Russia, India and France still possess or utilize a substantial number of them. Smaller numbers of overseas military bases are operated by China, Iran, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
The United States is the largest operator of military bases abroad, with 38 "named bases"[note 1] with active duty, national guard, reserve, or civilian personnel as of September 30, 2014. Its largest, in terms of personnel, was Ramstein AB in Germany, with almost 9,200 personnel.[2][note 2]
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Australia
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Bangladesh
China
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France
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Germany
Greece
India
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Iran
Israel
Italy
Japan
Pakistan
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Turkey

United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas military bases.
United States
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The U.S. military maintains hundreds of military installations, both inside the United States and overseas (with at least 128 military bases in 55 countries and territories, as of February 2025). Some American bases are also NATO-led with forces from multiple countries. According to the U.S. Army, Camp Humphreys in South Korea is the largest overseas base in terms of area.[102] Most of foreign military installations are located in NATO countries, Middle East countries, South Korea and Japan.
Countries with U.S. bases include:
Africa
Americas
Asia
Europe
Oceania
See also
Notes
- What are here termed "named bases" are the bases listed in section X: "Personnel Data from DMDC", i.e. excluding that table's rows labelled "Other", in the 2015 DoD Base Structure Report.
- The 2015 U.S. Base Structure Report gives 587 overseas sites, but sites are merely real property at a distinct geographical location, and multiple sites may belong to one installation (page DoD-3). For example, the Garmisch, Germany "named base" with its 72 personnel has eight distinct sites large enough to be listed in the Army's Individual Service Inventory list: Artillery Kaserne, Breitenau Skeet Range, Garmisch Family Housing, Garmish Golf Course, General Abrams Hotel And Disp, Hausberg Ski Area, Oberammergau NATO School, and Sheridan Barracks (listed in Army-15 to Army-17). These range in size from Ramstein AB with 9,188 active, guard/reserve, and civilian personnel down to Worms, which has just one civilian.
Suspected/unconfirmed presence of Egyptian military bases in Eritrea, a Saudi island and in Somalia.
References
Further reading
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