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1 1 (March 30, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/govehcd0001 and id is 1 raw text is: CongressionaI Research Service Informing Ih legisIlive debale sine 1914 0 Updated March 30, 2022 United States European Command: Overview and Key Issues History United States European Command (or EUCOM, pronounced YEW-com) is headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, and was established in 1952. USEUCOM's commander, U.S. Air Force General Tod D. Wolters, is simultaneously the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR). During the Cold War, the European theater was a primary focus for U.S. defense and national security and EUCOM was focused almost exclusively on deterring, and if necessary defeating, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. At the height of the Cold War, there were more than 400,000 U.S. troops stationed in Europe. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact led to a withdrawal of the bulk of forward-deployed U.S. troops in the European theater. Decisions to do so were arguably based on a number of strategic assumptions held by successive Administrations after the end of the Cold War, including that Europe could be stable, whole, and free; Russia could be a constructive partner in the Euro-Atlantic security architecture; and, particularly prior to September 11, 2001, threats posed by terrorism and migration from the Middle East/North Africa region were limited. EUCOM in recent decades focused its activities on non- warfighting missions, including building the security capacity and capability of former Soviet bloc states, prosecuting crisis management operations in the Balkans, and logistically supporting other combatant commands (by providing, in particular, critical medical evacuation facilities at Landstuhl), including U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). Over the past 25 years, decisions regarding U.S. basing and posture in the European theater were designed to support expeditionary and cooperative security operations. The bulk of U.S. forces in Europe have been withdrawn and many bases and outposts were either consolidated or closed. However, two Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) were retained (in Italy and Germany) as were some naval bases, particularly those along NATO's south, and a number of Air Force bases that were deemed critical for supporting operations in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. s r GeopolitkaD Events in recent years, particularly since 2014, have tested, if not undermined, the strategic assumptions underpinning EUCOM's posture. To Europe's east, Russia occupied Crimea and launched a separatist war in eastern Ukraine, is modernizing its conventional and nonconventional forces, and launched an invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia also increased its military activities in Europe's north, particularly by adding nuclear-capable missiles to Kaliningrad (a Russian territory on the Baltic Sea that is not contiguous with Russia itself), enhancing its air patrolling activities close to other states' airspace, and increasing its naval presence in the Baltic Sea, the Arctic Ocean, and the North Sea. Taken together, these moves have heightened congressional concerns about Russian aggression and its implications for NATO territories, particularly Central and Eastern European NATO allies. To Europe's south, instability resulting in part from the Arab Spring led to collapse of states, civil war in some instances, and significant refugee flows into Europe. The conflicts in Iraq and Syria are examples; some European countries are also concerned about conditions in Libya. This has led to political tensions across the broader European Union, as well as to concerns about terrorists embedding within refugee flows. In 2014, EUCOM began transforming itself back into a warfighting command, while retaining its missions to support CENTCOM and AFRICOM, perform crisis management operations, and build partner states' security capacity. U.S. Forces in Europe Today The United States fields two primary types of forces in Europe: permanent and rotational. Permanent refers to those U.S. personnel who live in Europe and are assigned to U.S. European Command. The length of these assignments for most servicemembers is between three and five years. On February 11, 2020, the Department of Defense (DOD) announced the reactivation of the V Corps headquarters at Fort Knox, KY, with a forward site in Poland, which will provide operational command and control for U.S., allied, and partner formations in Europe. Rotational Forces Since the Russian occupation of Crimea and areas of eastern Ukraine in 2014, DOD has also increased its rotations of temporary forces in and out of EUCOM to assure allies of the United States' commitment to their security. Dubbed heel-to-toe rotations, air, ground and naval assets are deployed from the continental United States to conduct exercises with NATO allies for several months; they are then immediately replaced by other like units. Of these rotations, U.S. ground forces have been largely stationed in Poland, with elements also conducting training and exercises in the Baltic States, Bulgaria, Romania, and Germany. The heel-to-toe rotations are part of Operation Atlantic Resolve (OAR). The European Deterrence Initiative is the key mechanism through which activities under OAR are organized and funded. Several observers have asserted that it might be more politically reassuring and financially efficient to permanently station these heel-to-toe rotational forces. Others contend that these rotations force military units in

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