USAF is "planning" to reactivate 20-25 Cold War era airbases in Europe (Rumour)

[Sparts99]

They tried that but there wasn't enough traffic, even when we were in the EU with the good links to the channel tunnel. it must be one of the few airfields in the country where there is a lot of local support for keeping it open.

[NorfolkNomad]

The runway at Sculthorpe is still used by the MOD and USAFE.

[roughcutter]

I imagine if the USAF were to go ahead and open up a former airbase, it would likely be a (temporary?) FOL in Europe?

[Ghost from above]

If a base closes and has part let out or parts demolished then the chances after 5 years are nil. I think the rumour behind this is probably related to the increase in deployments to NATO members bases. This can be seen at Lossiemouth where the US Navy P-8's regularly visit and have some facilities that are set aside for there use only. The wedgetail is going there so expect we will see the USAF airframes visiting. So basing similar aircraft together.
Therefore you only need a few specific additional buildings on existing airbases to deploy regularly. The costs are to prohibitive to reactivate airbases. The infrastructure degrades immediately the maintenance stops. So even after 6 months they would rip out electrics etc to replace. New build will never happen. The bottom line is there are fewer aircraft types shared across many nations. Look at how many have the F-35.