I wanted a lighter corps in Europe to replace heavy V Corps and suggested five brigades of troops, settling in at an airborne brigade, two airmobile brigades, and two Stryker brigades as a core expeditionary force able to launch into the arc of crisis from West Africa to Central Asia.
Initial reports said we'd have just a Stryker brigade and an airborne brigade for Europe.
Strategypage says we will have three ground brigades--one airborne and two Stryker, with an option on another Stryker brigade:
The 2nd Cavalry Regiment (Stryker) and a Combat Aviation Brigade are in Germany. The 173rd Aviation Brigade is in Italy. Another Stryker brigade will be the core of the Eastern European Task Force (EETF), and will be based in Romania. There may be another base established in Bulgaria for the EETF, which may be expanded to a second brigade. The new force will leave only about 24,000 American troops in Europe by the end of the decade.
So we may be up to four light and deployable maneuver brigades in Europe by the end of the decade. Keep a set or two of equipment for heavy brigades in Europe--perhaps in Italy and Poland--and we'll be set, I think.
We are adapting to the post-Cold War world but we are hardly abandoning Europe as I feared we might after we concluded we did not need a Cold War Army in Europe anymore.
