Brig. Gen. Tzvika Haimovitch, head of the IAF’s Aerial Defense Command, announced the establishment of the installation on Monday evening. “It’s nothing short of historic,” he said. It demonstrates the “years-old alliance between the United States and the State of Israel.”

The Israeli brigadier general also told reporters the establishment of a permanent US base in Israel “allows us to improve our defense, in discovery and in interception and in preparedness.” According to Haimovitch, the new air base, along with other recent improvements to Israel’s air defense program, “will improve our abilities significantly. It won’t get us to 100 percent, but it will get us much closer to achieving important things during war.”

Haimovitch insisted that the timing of the base opening wasn’t tied to any specific current event and noted that the process of establishing it had been in the works for some two years. However, he said, the permanent presence of a US base on Israeli soil sends a “message to the region and our surroundings that our partnership with our friend the United States is important.”

In his speech, Maj. Gen. John Gronski, deputy commander of US Army National Guard in Europe, said the base “symbolizes the strong bond that exists between the United States and Israel.” “We established an American base in the State of Israel, in the Israel Defense Forces, for the first time, with an American flag,” he said. Gronski also discussed the already close relationship between the two militaries. “The United States and Israel have long planned together, exercised together and trained together. And now, with the opening of this site, these crucial interactions will happen every day,” he said.