Under the same project, it is planned to build a military city similar to Ramstein Air Base, where more than 10,000 NATO servicemen will live together with their families.

[8] The fighter regiment moved to the Mihail Kogălniceanu Aerodrome in 1955, following the escape by seaplane of two aviators from Escadrila 131 Hidroaviație Palazu Mare.

[17] On 1 May 2007, the Mihail Kogălniceanu aerodrome was established, with the mission to coordinate the aeronautical activities in the area of responsibility, to ensure the Support of the Host Nation for the armed forces in transit, and to represent the interface between the foreign armed forces that carried out activities on the aerodrome and the public authorities represented locally.

The United States Army 21st Theater Sustainment Command and Air Force 780th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron were responsible for US operations there.

The drones, determined to be small civilian types, were subsequently brought down with electronic warfare equipment, although no remains were found.

[24] On the occasion of Her Majesty Margareta, Custodian of the Romanian Crown and Prince Radu's visit to the base on 17 May 2024, it was announced that the 57th Air Base received the name "Captain Aviator Constantin Cantacuzino", in honor of Romania's top scoring ace of World War II, Prince Constantin "Bâzu" Cantacuzino.

Georgescu claimed that the base was going to be used to launch an attack on Russia and start World War III before the inauguration of Donald Trump on 20 January.

Such news were dismissed by the Romanian Ministry of National Defence and by James C. O'Brien, the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.

[7][28] In 2021, the first stage of a 2 billion euro project was launched by the Romanian Armed Forces to modernize and expand the base as a response to the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea.

Under this project, approved by the Romanian Government in 2019, plans are to build a small military city, similar to Ramstein Air Base.

"[31] and a Romanian Defence Ministry official told Euractiv that as a result of the "decision to expand NATO's military base.

[36] Construction began in 2024 on the south side of the future base, where a high-capacity electrical network and access roads are being built.

"[40][41] The Enhanced Air Policing (eAP) mission was established in 2014 as NATO's response to Russia's annexation of Crimea.

[42] Since then several NATO member nations have deployed to the base to participate in this mission: The first deployment to Mihail Kogălniceanu as part of the NATO enhanced Air Policing mission was a detachment of four Eurofighter Typhoons of the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force.

1 Squadron, 135 Expeditionary Air Wing were scrambled to intercept six Russian Su-24 Fencer bombers over the Black Sea.

[51][52] In August 2017, the Royal Canadian Air Force replaced the RAF on the eAP mission with a detachment of four CF-18 Hornet fighters.

[48][56] In 2009, construction for the new United States Army base on the site of the former 34th Territorial Mechanized Brigade garrison was completed.

[13] Task Force East has since been transformed into Area Support Group Black Sea (ASG-BS) of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command.

[2][57] As part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, a US Army Light Division is deployed at the base on a nine-month rotation basis.

[66] In March 2016, four CF-188 Hornets of the Royal Canadian Air Force 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron were deployed at the base for about a month, to participate in the Resilient Resolve 2016 exercise.

[67] Starting from 2022, an ARTEMIS special mission aircraft of the United States Army deployed here for reconnaissance of Eastern Europe.

While flying over the Barents Sea, the two bombers were intercepted by Russian MiG-29 and MiG-31 fighters but continued on their flight path to Romania, being escorted by Finnish F/A-18s, German Eurofighters and Romanian F-16s until their arrival at Mihail Kogălniceanu.

[75] According to Eurocontrol data, it has been the site of four landings and two stopovers by aircraft identified as probably belonging to the CIA's fleet of rendition planes, including at least one widely used Gulfstream V executive jet N379P, later registered, and more commonly cited, as N44982.

[76] European, but not U.S., media have widely distributed reports of a fax intercepted by Swiss intelligence, datelined 10 November 2005, that "was sent by the Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, in Cairo, to his ambassador in London.

It revealed that the United States had detained at least 23 Iraqi and Afghan captives at a military base called Mihail Kogălniceanu in Romania, and added that similar secret prisons were to be found in Poland, Ukraine, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Bulgaria.