{"id":59111,"date":"2025-03-28T22:53:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T21:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=59111"},"modified":"2026-04-29T20:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T18:09:10","slug":"a-terrorist-attack-exercise-by-the-american-military-police-at-the-spanish-base-of-rota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/03\/28\/a-terrorist-attack-exercise-by-the-american-military-police-at-the-spanish-base-of-rota\/","title":{"rendered":"A terrorist attack exercise by the American Military Police at the Spanish base of Rota"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The shift in US foreign policy has created some uncertainty about American military bases in Europe.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/03\/29\/the-vehicles-of-the-us-military-police-guarding-the-spanish-naval-base-in-rota\/\">The vehicles of the US Military Police guarding the Spanish naval base in Rota<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2019\/07\/03\/this-is-how-the-us-military-honors-its-flag-in-rota-in-its-only-annual-hoist\/\">This is how the US military honors its flag in Rota in its only annual hoist<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>One of the main European military bases with a presence of the United States Armed Forces is <strong>the Rota Naval Station in Spain<\/strong>. This joint base was created under the 1953 Madrid Pact between Spain and the United States. <strong>The base is monitored jointly by the Spanish Navy's Naval Police and the U.S. Navy's Military Police.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54415286482_f4fd1ea2e7_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Despite the political controversies of recent months, <strong>US military personnel serving at this base<\/strong> (one of the most sought-after destinations in the US Navy, due to Spain's good quality of life and excellent climate) <strong>continue with their daily activities, including their security training<\/strong>, as was evident two weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54415286532_0cc2334526_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On March 13, <strong>US Navy Military Police conducted a simulated terrorist attack in Rota<\/strong>, using the vehicles assigned to them for their operations at this base. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/image\/8912655\/navsta-rota-conducts-final-evaluation-problem-antiterrorism-assessment\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The US Navy released photos of the exercise that same day.<\/a> It should be noted that the published images <strong>do not show any members or vehicles of the Spanish Naval Police<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54415286492_ae9fca522e_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Navy defined this exercise as a <em>\"Final Evaluation Problem, <strong>an antiterrorism assessment to ensure NAVSTA Rota can properly defend itslef from internal and external threats<\/strong>.\"<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54416152961_7d1ba07655_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the photo caption, the US Navy explained the importance of this base to the US Armed Forces: <em>\"As the \"Gateway to the Mediterranean,\" <strong>NAVSTA Rota provides U.S., NATO and allied forces a strategic hub for operations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.<\/strong> NAVSTA Rota is a force multiplier, capable of promptly deploying and supporting combat-ready forces through land, air and sea, <strong>enabling warfighters and their families, sustaining the fleet and fostering the U.S. and Spanish partnership<\/strong>.\"<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54416397278_2f69862ec8_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the images released by the US Navy, we see <strong>the new 2021 Toyota Land Cruiser all-terrain vehicles of the US Military Police in Rota<\/strong>. As you may recall, prior to these vehicles <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/03\/29\/los-vehiculos-de-la-policia-militar-de-eeuu-que-guarda-la-base-naval-espanola-de-rota\/\">the US Military Police in Rota used Ford Focus vehicles<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54416340994_8af9cf2445_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As an interesting fact, <strong>the American Military Police in Rota have license plates similar to the Spanish ones but with their own code<\/strong>, so their vehicles can circulate within the base, but not outside it. All the vehicles shown in the photos, including the white Ford Mondeo used to simulate a hostile vehicle, have these base-specific license plates.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54416539770_3ba7507fca_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As an additional note, <strong>the uniforms worn by these American MPs are NWU Type III with AOR2 camouflage<\/strong>, which are standard US Navy uniforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The shift in US foreign policy has created some uncertainty about American military bases in Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[11545],"tags":[1933,24088,18871,12825,11462,24087,319,26887],"class_list":["post-59111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-navy","tag-cadiz","tag-ford-mondeo","tag-military-police","tag-naval-station-rota","tag-spain","tag-toyota-land-cruiser-2021","tag-us-navy","tag-us-navy-security-forces-nsf"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-02 03:31:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}