Study: Stationing Brigade in Europe Saves Money, Stress
Fri, 01/24/2025 - 08:33
Instead of relying on nine-month deployments to Europe, the Army should forward-station troops in allied European countries, according to a recent report from the Atlantic Council.
“Assuming the United States maintains some kind of troop presence in Europe … relying primarily on rotational presence doesn’t make sense fiscally,” writes author John Deni, a research professor at the Army’s Strategic Studies Institute and a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative. “This may seem counterintuitive, but recent U.S. Army data indicate that recurring annual costs of back-to-back nine-month deployments outweigh those associated with basing units in Europe on a full-time basis.”
Continually rotating an armored brigade combat team into Europe costs almost $70 million more annually than stationing troops in Germany or Poland, Deni found.
Though building the infrastructure to support an armored brigade combat team could be “significant,” host nations can utilize cost sharing to reduce U.S. expenses.
https://www.ausa.org/news/study-stationing-brigade-europe-saves-money-stress