Where US Forces Are Stationed at Overseas Bases
CRS counted at least 128 U.S. overseas bases in 51 countries and used March 2024 personnel data to show where permanently assigned forces are concentrated.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2026 — The Defense Department “manages or uses at least 128 overseas bases in at least 51 different countries,” the Congressional Research Service reported in July 2024. CRS compiled that inventory from official lists and notes that the true number of sites to which the United States has access is higher once smaller “posture locations” and rotational facilities are counted.
Policymakers, the report says, cite three recurring reasons for keeping those bases: faster response to contingencies outside the United States, deterrence of attacks on America or its allies, and assurance to partners that U.S. security commitments are real. The figures that follow are CRS’s reading of Defense Manpower Data Center data for personnel “permanently assigned” as of March 2024. They exclude most temporary and rotational deployments.
Where the permanent assignments are concentrated
In the Indo-Pacific, about 81,000 active-duty servicemembers were permanently assigned to overseas bases, CRS reports, including 54,774 in Japan and 24,234 in South Korea. Those forces include the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea, the Marine Corps’ III Marine Expeditionary Force on Okinawa, and Navy ships — among them an aircraft carrier — based in Japan. Indo-Pacific Command headquarters sits outside Honolulu. CRS records that Defense officials routinely call the region the “priority theater.” Those forces fall under combatant commanders whose missions and areas of responsibility are assigned in the Unified Command Plan, the CRS command primer explains.
In Europe, about 67,200 were permanently assigned, with the largest groups in Germany (35,068), Italy (12,375) and the United Kingdom (10,058). European Command is headquartered in Stuttgart. CRS notes that thousands of additional personnel were in Europe on rotational or temporary duty as of June 2024, a surge that followed Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Elsewhere the permanent numbers are smaller and easier to misread. About 5,400 were permanently assigned in the Middle East, including 3,479 in Bahrain, CRS says, while thousands more were present on rotational duty as of June 2024. Africa accounted for about 1,150 permanent assignments, 406 of them in Djibouti, though the Navy has described Camp Lemonnier as hosting about 4,000 U.S., joint and allied military and civilian personnel when rotational staff are included. Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for about 1,650 permanent assignments, including 616 in Cuba and 365 in Honduras.
Adding the regional totals CRS reports for March 2024 produces roughly 156,000 permanently assigned active-duty personnel at overseas bases, before counting most rotational forces. The report does not present that sum as an official Department total, and it warns that rotational deployments can change the picture quickly.
Access is not the same as a main operating base
CRS distinguishes persistent bases from sites with a thin footprint. Africa Command, it notes, describes some locations as having “minimal permanent U.S. presence,” low-cost facilities and limited supplies, used to respond to emergencies rather than to house large permanently assigned units. That is why a headline troop number for a country can look small on a DMDC spreadsheet and larger in a command posture statement.
The same caution applies in reverse. Japan, Germany and South Korea are high-income hosts, CRS observes, and debates continue over how much of the cost of U.S. basing they should bear. In one period CRS cites, the United States recorded $714.2 million in burden-sharing contributions from Kuwait, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Poland. The report says CRS still cannot produce a single, complete cost for the overseas basing enterprise from publicly available budget documents.
The geography in the 2024 study is a snapshot, not a forecast. It is the most detailed official compilation Congress’s researchers have published of where permanently assigned U.S. forces sit — and of how much of the real posture never appears in the permanent column. Force-posture reporting continues on the military deployments hub and the U.S. military page. Related explainers include combatant commands and the first island chain.
Sources
- Congressional Research Service: U.S. Overseas Basing (R48123)
- Congressional Research Service: Defense Primer: Commanding U.S. Military Operations (IF10542)
