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The Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base, located near Constanța on Romania’s Black Sea coast, is undergoing a major expansion project that began in 2024. This $2.7 billion (approximately €2.5 billion) initiative aims to transform it into a strategic hub capable of housing up to 10,000 NATO personnel and their families by 2030. The base will feature an expanded runway (doubling the current one), a second runway, hangars for fighter jets and drones, fuel depots, and extensive support infrastructure like schools, kindergartens, shops, and a hospital—essentially a self-contained military city. Its strategic position, roughly 20 kilometers from the Black Sea, 300 kilometers from Odesa, Ukraine, and 400 kilometers from Russian-occupied Crimea, makes it a critical asset for NATO’s deterrence and defense posture against Russian activities in the region.