According to the Wall Street Journal, new defense measures were proposed over the last weekend at the Reagan National Defense Forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. These would allow the US military to maintain multiple brigades in Europe at any given time, significantly exceeding current limits.
The US Army currently maintains two infantry brigades (approximately 7,000 servicemen, total) in Eastern Europe, with one other brigade rotating in and out of Europe on a regular basis.
General Mark Milley, US Army Chief of Staff, told the Wall Street Journal that he wants to add more brigades plus additional attack helicopter units, engineering teams and artillery to the forces rotating to Europe. The general insisted that such actions were necessary to prevent new conflicts from erupting in Europe, arguing that "aggression left unanswered is likely to lead to more aggression."
General Philip Breedlove, NATO's supreme allied commander, said that he favors the deployment of more rotational forces to Europe, and that the decision on the proposal will be made "in the next couple of months."
These proposals to engage in more rotating troop deployments must first be developed by the Pentagon's planners and approved by the Obama administration. Nevertheless, the military intends to include the funding for these measures in a budget request due to be submitted to Capitol Hill early next year, WSJ points out.
