{"id":45758,"date":"2022-04-05T19:31:15","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T19:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2022\/04\/05\/pentagons-top-general-suggests-more-permanent-basing-in-europe-but-with-rotational-manning\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T07:31:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:31:28","slug":"pentagons-top-general-suggests-more-permanent-basing-in-europe-but-with-rotational-manning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2022\/04\/05\/pentagons-top-general-suggests-more-permanent-basing-in-europe-but-with-rotational-manning\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon\u2019s top general suggests more permanent basing in Europe, but with rotational manning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine<\/a> has thrown into sharp focus the debate over how many U.S. troops <\/a>should be permanently stationed<\/a> in Europe and where.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the war, about 80,000 troops were on the continent, either on U.S. bases in countries like Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, or as part of heel-to-toe rotations from the U.S., spread out to train with partners up and down the eastern edge of NATO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, top brass are suggesting that plan needs some re-thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy advice would be to create permanent bases, but don\u2019t permanently station,\u201d Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. \u201cSo you get the effect of permanence by rotational forces cycling through permanent bases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The major difference would be that those troops would be on a type of deployment, and so wouldn\u2019t bring their families with them, the way they do when spending two or three years at a time in Europe. So these bases would have basic services for troops, but wouldn\u2019t require family housing, schools, shopping and other amenities available on traditional permanent installations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd I believe that a lot of our European allies … they are very, very willing to establish permanent bases,\u201d Milley said. \u201cThey\u2019ll build them, they\u2019ll pay for them, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The services, particularly the Army, have been experimenting with the right force posture in Europe for much of the past decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After closing some permanent bases in Germany, the Army replaced many of those forces with back-to-back rotations of armored brigades. This model not only made it easy to plug rotations into planned exercises around Europe, but took some pressure off permanently based troops, who were constantly leaving countries like Germany to head to Romania or Poland, cutting into their home station responsibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\t