Countries With the Most US Military Bases

The United States gained the military base Argentia Newfoundland as part of the Leased Bases Agreement with Great Britain in 1941 in exchange for 50 aging American destroyers. The United States still retains the base in the Canadian province of Newfoundland under a 99-year lease agreement. Other American bases in Canada closed after the war, but Argentia continued to operate as a U.S. naval facility until 1994, when the last remaining American military service members left the base. It remains on the books as U.S. base.

The Novo Selo Training Area is a joint U.S.-Bulgarian military base at Novo Selo in the eastern section of the Balkan country. The American presence has grown in the nations that have joined NATO since 2016, in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and aggression in Ukraine. Bulgaria, a former member of the Warsaw Pact, has been a NATO member since 2004. In 2006, the country signed a defense cooperation agreement with the United States.

One of two bases with U.S. military presence in Spain, Naval Station Rota is located in the southern part of the country and was established in 1953. It provides logistical support and serves as a strategic presence in the eastern Mediterranean Sea for the U.S. Navy. It supports U.S. naval forces in Europe and Africa, including the 6th Fleet, at a nearly 6,000-acre facility. .

Naval Medical Research Unit 6, one of two bases with U.S. military presence in Peru, is located in the Peruvian capital of Lima since 1983. The unit conducts research on infectious diseases such as malaria and yellow fever that pose a threat to American military assets in that region of South America.

Camp Arifjan in Kuwait is primarily a U.S. Army base in Kuwait, though Air Force, Navy, and Marine personnel also use its facilities. It is a forward-deployment camp, meaning that troops going to or leaving from strategically important countries like Iraq pass through Camp Arifjan. The country hosts the U.S. military in one other base near the city of Udairi.