The Al Udeid airbase south of Doha, the Qatari capital, serves as a logistics, command, and
basing hub for U.S. operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Nearby Camp As Sayliyah houses
significant U.S. military equipment pre-positioning and command facilities for the U.S. Central
Command (CENTCOM) area of operations. Qatar invested over $1 billion to construct the Al
Udeid air base during the 1990s; it did not have an air force of its own at the time. The U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers also awarded over $100 million dollars in Military Construction Air Force
(MCAF) contracts for the construction of U.S. storage, housing, service, command, and
communication facilities. Qatar’s financing and construction of some of the state-of-the-art air
force base at Al Udeid and its granting of permission for the construction of U.S.-funded facilities
facilitated gradually deeper cooperation with U.S. military forces. U.S. access to the base there
was formalized in late 2000. In April 2003, the U.S. Combat Air Operations Center for the Middle
East moved from Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia to Qatar’s Al Udeid. Qatar contributed
$400 million to U.S. efforts to upgrade and construct facilities there, including a new air
operations command center.47 The base currently serves as the home of the 379th Air
Expeditionary Wing.
Homeland Security Digital Library
Look, if we really have to leave, then we would have ten countries who's willing to build us another one. Believe me. And they'll pay for it. You know the days for us paying for things are going to be largely over. They'll start back . We build, we this, we that. Donald Trump
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