This paper argues that our European NATO allies are losing the ability to commit ground forces at anything higher than brigade level units for any lengthy overseas deployments. Most will struggle to have a complete battalion that is combat ready.
The paper also highlights that a decade of war in Afghanistan has increased interoperability between US and NATO forces (on top of the efforts through NATO during the Cold War).
Given these trends, why can't we exploit our nearly unique ability to operate multiple combat brigades under a division flag? Couldn't we create Cadre Brigade Combat Teams in Europe that could absorb European companies and battalions into multi-national brigades?
These would be built around one of our recon squadrons, an artillery battalion, and a larger-than-usual headquarters component, plus logistic elements (perhaps mostly from the Reserves or National Guard). The idea would be that we could sweep up allied combat battalions (infantry or heavy) and plug two or three of them in to the CBCT. American troops from the larger headquarters element would then embed with the foreign battalion to allow them to plug into the American network. We'd need some way to equip at least a portion of the allied unit's vehicles and troops with blue force tracker. Perhaps our allies adopt it for some of their more capable units even as most of their militaries continue to be civil servants in uniform and more useful for soaking up unemployment than fighting.
If we don't figure out some way to consolidate the increasingly small bits of real combat capabilities that our allies can hand on to, soon we'll be the only real player in NATO. That isn't healthy for an alliance.
