Al Dhafra Air Base

Location: Sharjah, about an hour outside the United Arab Emirates capital, Abu Dhabi.

Personnel: About 500 U.S. military, mostly Air Force.

Units: 380th Air Expeditionary Wing; 763rd and 908th Expeditionary Air Refueling squadrons; and 9th Reconnaissance Wing, according to military research group Globalsecurity.org.

Aircraft: KC-10 refueling tankers.

Role: A small number of U.S. aircraft and personnel (about 500 in September, according to The New York Times) are based in al-Dhafra. Their primary role in the past several years has been in-flight refueling missions for allied aircraft patrolling the southern Iraq "no-fly" zone.