US ramps up military planning, training to deter Russia in Europe
The United States is intensifying military planning and training in Europe for a potential conflict with Russia on NATO’s eastern flank, according to reports.
The US Army hosted a security conference at its headquarters in Wiesbaden, Germany, last week, which was attended by Army generals from 38 European countries. Deterring Russian President Vladimir Putin was a central theme of the conference.
“In order to deter an adversary, he has got to realize your capabilities. He’s got to be able to see it and smell it — from the news, from the exercises, from things like this conference,” the US Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Mark Milley, said.
Officials described measures to boost the NATO alliance, including through massive training exercises to project and maintain readiness.
Since Russia’s involvement in the Ukrainian conflict last year, the US military has worked to transform its force structure in Europe, moving more ships, aircraft and troops into the region.
Milley said recommendations about the force-structure review will be presented to the Pentagon. “We’ll look at that and try and figure out the right balance,” he said.
The US Army expects more forward-positioning of military hardware as well as rotating large numbers of forces around the Baltics and Poland.
The US is currently leading a massive military exercise with its NATO allies in several European countries, which involves 36,000 troops responding to the invasion of a fictitious region by a hostile neighbor.
The maneuver -- named Trident Juncture, the largest in more than a decade -- reflects concerns about what US and European officials describe as “Russian aggression.”
Russia’s growing influence has also prompted US generals in Europe to plan in detail for various combat scenarios. “We are busy as hell,” Col. Bill Williams, deputy chief of staff at the Army headquarters Germany, told POLITICO.
Officials said that a scenario involving a sudden move by Russia into the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia was a key topic of discussion at the conference in Germany.
The US was also caught flat-footed by the bombing campaign Russia launched into Syria late in September. Washington is worried that Moscow is concentrating parts of its airstrikes on US-allied militants fighting the Syrian government.
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