The USAF will be pulling out of Royal Air Force bases Mildenhall, Alconbury and Molesworth, among other smaller base closures across Europe. Is it time to stop subsidizing Europe's protection or are we underestimating the threat from Russia?

Amid all these changes, bases in Germany will be gaining Mildenhall's Spec Ops MC-130s and CV-22s, along with its KC-135R. The only good news for the is that RAF Lankenheath's F-15Cs and F-15Es will be replaced by F-35As in 2020.

Machynlleth Loop, more popularly, and relevantly for that matter, known as "Mach Loop," is a series

, as the DoD calls it, has been in the works for years as an alternative to highly political and special interest driven Base Realignment And Closures (BRAC) process here at home. Basically, US lawmakers fight to the death when it comes to closing a base in their constituents' back yard, but they really don't care about those overseas. Thus they are easier to close in order to save some cash.

In addition, some would argue that BRAC, especially in its most recent evolutions, has had a dismal track record of actually saving the DoD money at all, often times moving units multiple times in a single decade after many millions of dollars were spent on infrastructure improvements at each one of their 'new' homes. Some studies , especially in the near term.

With RAF Mildenhall's tankers heading to Ramstein Air Base and its special operations MC-130s and CV-22 Ospreys heading to Spangdahlem Air Base, both of which are in Germany, and RAF Lakenheath relinquishing its Eagles and Strike Eagles for F-35s by 2020, USAFE's hard air power will be split up among . Really, just Aviono Air Base in Italy and the bases mentioned above will have permanently stationed aircraft of any substantial numbers and tactical capabilities.

It was just four years ago that Wild Weasels and just over a year ago that the. What will be left in Europe by 2020 will be a pair of F-35 squadrons in the UK and a pair of F-16 squadrons in Italy. In all they will add up to between 80 and 90 multi-role fighters, aside from . This is if there are not further cuts made before the F-35s arrive at Lakenheath in 2020.

The DoD will be sending additional fighters to the Baltics, and possibly Poland, to beef up the…

Some see this type of consolidation as a bad move at time when a resurgent and is drastically increasing its and. If anything, these proponents for a larger US presence in Europe say that we should be increasing our air combat capabilities in the region, not further consolidating them. Meanwhile, others say that we should not be in Europe at all, and that America has done nothing but subsidize the security of rich European nations since the end of the Cold War by maintaining an air combat and large military presence there. One that comes at great expenditure of the US taxpayer.

Norway is saying that Russia is flying aggressively during intercepts and posted the video below in

What do you think? Do you agree with this latest European Infrastructure Consolidation act? Should we be withdrawing our ever more scarce air combat capabilities from Europe or should be bolstering them in the region?