US considers shifting new F-16s to Incirlik

The planned transfer would move the aircraft closer to the volatile Middle East region, the newspaper said but added that the shift from the base in Spangdahlem, Germany, would be carried out only if Turkey gives the United States broad latitude for using them, something that some officials see as unlikely.

The report followed a series of statements by Turkish officials hinting at U.S. requests for broader rights pertaining to the use of Incirlik. A defense cooperation agreement between Turkey and the United States allows deployment of up to 48 jet fighters in the southern base, but Washington pulled out most of its aircraft there after Turkey refused last year to allow U.S. troops to use its territory to open a northern front on Iraq.

Turkish authorities have said Washington had certain requests and added that they were still under discussion. But they made it clear that there was not much willingness to expand the cooperation to a level that goes beyond the framework drawn up by the existing defense cooperation agreement.

In Ankara, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said on Friday that the United States had not conveyed any new requests. "There is no new request, no new situation," Gul told reporters outside the Foreign Ministry when asked to comment on the Times report.

The planned shift to Incirlik is part of a Pentagon plan to undertake an array of changes in its European-based forces, in the most significant rearrangement of the American military around the world since the beginning of the Cold War.

Pentagon policy-makers quoted by The New York Times said the aim was to afford maximum flexibility in sending forces to the Middle East, Central Asia and other potential battlegrounds.

Officials said they expected the major decisions on the realignment to be made in a month or two.

Under the Pentagon plan, two U.S. Army divisions would be withdrawn from Germany, with the First Armored and First Infantry divisions returning to the United States. A brigade equipped with Stryker light armored vehicles would be deployed in Germany.

A typical division consists of three brigades and can number 20,000 troops if logistical units are included, though these two divisions have only two brigades each in Germany, with the other brigade in the United States.

The Navy’s headquarters in Europe would be transferred from Britain to Italy. Administration officials are also discussing plans to remove some F-15 fighters from Britain and to withdraw the handful of F-15 fighters that are normally deployed in Iceland, though final decisions have not been made.