American bases: why a transfer from Spain to Morocco remains highly unlikely

While the Ksar Sghir base is regularly cited by Washington as a possible alternative, the lack of deep-water infrastructure and a high-tech industrial ecosystem, coupled with Morocco’s exclusion from the North Atlantic Treaty, undermines the credibility of this scenario in favor of maintaining the status quo in Andalusia, explains La Razòn.

The use of Morocco as a lever for diplomatic negotiation by American services is confronted with major operational constraints that nuance the attractiveness of a military relocation to the south of the Strait of Gibraltar. Technical reports emphasize that the Ksar Sghir base does not have the capacity to host the naval combat groups of the latest generation and very large ships that the Rota naval base is designed for. While Rota allows for complex maneuvers regardless of tidal conditions, the Moroccan site remains limited to hosting frigates and does not have the necessary logistical support infrastructure for a large-scale naval force.

The industrial deficit constitutes a second obstacle to a permanent establishment of US Navy forces in Morocco. The Rota base benefits from the immediate proximity of the Navantia shipyards and a high-precision engineering network, essential for the heavy maintenance of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. In contrast, Morocco does not yet offer a comparable high-tech ecosystem, which would force the United States to outsource or import all repair services, thus increasing costs and operational delays.

From a geopolitical standpoint, a transfer of military assets to the kingdom would place American forces outside the legal framework of NATO. Unlike Spain, Morocco is not bound by Article 5 of the Atlantic Alliance, which guarantees mutual defense in the event of aggression. This withdrawal from the protection framework of the international organization would expose the fleet to greater political volatility and deprive the United States of the strategic depth offered by the European anchor. In this context, the Spanish geography, a true lock of the Mediterranean, remains the central asset of Madrid in the face of American disengagement attempts.