https://crsreports.congress.gov
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 Balkan
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of U.S. forces in Europe have been withdrawn and many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.
USEUCOM’s Current Geopolitical
Challenges
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 service members 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
