Suurlähettiläs unohtaa, keitä Trump toisi mukanaan vallan huipulle

”Looking at the third C, which means “Cash” and constitutes the financial dimension of the Reassurance Initiative, it becomes apparent that the United States is clearly willing to provide material support for Europe’s defence. Apart from the fact that Washington already contributes a substantial amount of money to NATO, the Pentagon increased the figures for funding defence efforts in Europe also under Trump. Thus, in 2015, expenses for the “European Reassurance Initiative” amounted to initially 985 million US dollars, followed by an increase of another 789 million in 2016. In the Trump period, financial support of the deterrence measures is estimated to have risen from 4.6 billion dollars in 2018 to 6.5 billion dollars in 2019. In 2019, about 50 per cent of the expenses are to be earmarked for the forward deployment of major defence equipment such as tanks, artillery and transport vehicles.”
”To realize this goal, extensive logistic transports and troop movements are required, also through Germany. This also contributes to gathering experience as to how the Alliance can quickly deploy forces within Europe to its borders.2 The number of forces stationed in Europe, however, remains more or less the same due to the continuous rotation of the units earmarked for this purpose. This nine-month rotation of a combat brigade, which is currently employed in Poland, and of another army aviation brigade, equipped with approx. 90 helicopters, means that as many as about 29,000 US soldiers are present in Europe at the moment. And the Americans do not only cover the north-eastern flank of NATO but also commit themselves in the south-eastern part of the Alliance. Rotating forces are also present in Romania and Bulgaria. The advantage hoped for is that even in the event of a crisis in the Black Sea, the follow-up of additional reaction forces will be made easier. The US Marine Corps alone participates in the protection of the south-eastern flank with 1,300 Marines, also in the form of a rotation that lasts nine months.

Yet, the associated amount of “Contribution” to the increased number of exercise activities is more important than the mere presence of troops and capabilities. The United States participates in numerous large and small-scale exercises and training projects. Saber Strike, a multinational US-led major exercise of this kind, ended a few days ago in Poland. 18,000 troops from 19 different nations were involved in the training of the forward-deployed battlegroups and of other reinforcement forces. This exercise format is no exception. At an even larger scale, among others, the US-led exercise Saber Guardian was held in Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria in 2017 as one of the biggest exercises for land forces. Apart from the United States with 14,000 troops, another 21 nations with altogether 11,000 troops, including forces from Germany, came together with the objective of training how to cross major rivers under combat conditions.”