As the North Atlantic Treaty Organization wrestles with issues of growth, the U.S. European Command, which supplies American forces to the alliance, is undergoing major changes of its own, said Marine Gen. James Jones, who heads both military units.
EUCOM is reorganizing because its mission has shifted from defending Western Europe from a Soviet invasion to fighting a global war on terrorism, he said. "We are becoming more agile, with lighter forces that can deploy when we need to deploy," he said.
EUCOM, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, is shrinking from 112,000 troops to around 50,000. U.S. Army forces in Europe will be reduced from two full divisions in Germany and a brigade combat team in Italy to one brigade-size unit each in Germany, Italy and an as yet unannounced location in Eastern Europe.
Germany would get a Stryker brigade, to be based in Vilseck, near the Army's major training facility at Grafenwohr. In Italy, the 173rd Airborne Brigade, at Vicenza, would expand to increase its ability to deploy rapidly, perform forced-entry operations and sustain itself in the field. In addition, a third rotational brigade combat team would be formed as the Eastern European Task Force and deployed perhaps as early as later this year to Bulgaria or Romania. The United States currently is discussing options with both nations, said a defense official.
Many U.S. bases, which have operated since World War II, will close, including 11 Army installations in Germany this year alone. The last U.S. military planes flew out of Rhein-Main Air Base in October.
Soon, only three types of U.S. bases will remain in Europe, Jones said. These include main operating bases like Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and U.S. Naval Station Rota, Spain. Second are austere forward-operating bases like Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo and Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. Jones envisions similar facilities in Morocco and Tunisia, as well as Bulgaria and Romania.
Third are cooperative security sites, which could include airfields-sometimes called "lily pads"-where national governments will permit U.S. planes to refuel and bases where military supplies could be stockpiled for future use by U.S. forces.
Unlike NATO, whose mission is to defend the North Atlantic region, the European Command's area of responsibility stretches through 91 countries, from the northern tip of Norway to South Africa's Cape of Good Hope.
An area that demands attention, Jones said, is Africa. The continent is largely a collection of failed or struggling states with vast stretches of ungoverned territory, which is becoming a "massive recruiting ground for terrorism," he said.
To be successful in Africa over the long term, Jones said, will require a small, but continuing, ongoing U.S. presence. "Previously, we've intervened quickly in crises in places like Liberia and pulled out just as quickly, only to have to go back in again in a few years."
Recently, EUCOM has been deploying small teams of special operations forces, Marines and other light units to conduct low-level training exercises with African military services, Jones said. "We've been very successful for a very modest amount of money."