America needs a new type of U.S. Army unit that collects NATO’s numerous but atomized European maneuver battalions into American-led multinational brigade combat teams. Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has alarmed NATO and reinforced the need for collective defense. Russia is not letting its difficult and costly war get in the way of long-term planning to confront NATO directly.

At a 2023 summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, NATO nations declared in a July 11, 2023, communique that Russia “shattered” peace in the Euro-Atlantic region by invading Ukraine, and is “the most significant and direct threat” to NATO security. The NATO Military Committee cautioned against underestimating the Russians, with Royal Netherlands Navy Adm. Rob Bauer, chair of the committee, telling reporters, “They might not be 11 feet tall, but they are certainly not 2 feet tall.”

In February, Russia resurrected the Moscow and Leningrad military districts of its armed forces, which will help the country restore large-scale combat capabilities against NATO states from Poland to Finland.

Buying Time

Russia’s ability to wage conventional war for more than two years is alone alarming. But Ukraine’s fight buys time for NATO to correct shortfalls. The 2022 National Defense Strategy supports NATO-wide capabilities, stating that the U.S. “will prioritize interoperability and enable coalitions with enhanced capabilities, new operating concepts, and combined, collaborative force planning.”

The U.S. Army’s ability to conduct high-intensity, large-scale combat operations is a unique capability in NATO. The Army can advance NATO combined, collaborative force planning while enhancing interoperability with complementary European capabilities by creating a new type of brigade that I would call the cadre brigade combat team (CBCT). These brigades would use American troops as the backbone of brigades forward-deployed in Europe that are capable of integrating European NATO maneuver battalions.

This initiative would aggregate and enhance the power of smaller European NATO armies, increasing NATO deterrence and warfighting capabilities by addressing the early crisis combat power deficit in eastern NATO scenarios.

The NATO of today—even newly alerted to the Russian threat—is a far cry from the 1980s NATO prepared to resist the Soviet Union. In 1980, for example, the Federal Republic of Germany fielded 11 active-component divisions. Britain deployed four divisions in West Germany. Belgium and the Netherlands each contributed a multidivision corps to hold the line.

Earlier Threat

Even before Russia invaded Ukraine on a large scale in 2022, Russia’s tightening integration with Belarus and Russian large-scale, no-notice exercises posed a threat to NATO security. NATO and U.S. European Command already had begun to rebuild eroded capabilities for resisting potential Russian aggression. In 2017, NATO deployed battalion-sized multinational battle groups, including an American-led force, to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to deter Russia.

Four more were added after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine to extend the trip wire to the Black Sea. And NATO will expand some battle groups to brigades where needed—which the region from Estonia to Poland clearly justifies. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have committed to building 600 bunkers along their borders with Russia. America’s Baltic Security Initiative helps fund efforts by these states to resist Russian aggression.

NATO resolve to bolster its Baltic states is progress in moving beyond a trip-wire posture. But during the months it would take to ship significant numbers of U.S. units across the Atlantic, Russia will retain the advantage in ground forces capable of reaching the theater of war in eastern NATO.

Will Russia be able to exploit its initial advantage—especially in heavy forces—in an eastern NATO scenario despite NATO’s overall superiority? Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine seized significant ground during its initial advances in the south. Russia then used the most valuable commodity in war—time—to prepare formidable defenses that blunted and stopped Ukraine’s long-telegraphed 2023 counteroffensive.

Can European armies meet the ambitious NATO Force Model goal of deploying 300,000 personnel to the front within 30 days? Doubts exist about meeting the goal of the model, which was announced in June 2022. The CBCT initiative would reduce the time Russia would have to achieve its objectives and prepare to hold them. CBCTs would provide a means to get more European maneuver battalions ready for combat within the 30-day benchmark for reinforcing the east.

Committed to Cooperation

Multinational integration is promoted in European armies, which have been reduced in size since the Cold War. The multinational NATO battle groups and brigade combat teams intended to reassure eastern NATO allies and deter Russia are merely the most prominent. NATO recognizes the heightened importance of aggregating its large but atomized military power, saying in the Vilnius Summit Communique, “We commit to improve the interoperability of our national forces ...”

The European Union pursues creation of European battle groups, including the Nordic Battlegroup that incorporates non-European Union member Norway, in addition to other NATO states. Britain created the Joint Expeditionary Force of northern European nations. Germany leads a program to integrate NATO allied brigades into the Bundeswehr and also contributes to the long-standing Franco-German brigade.

NATO’s Framework Nations Concept seeks to reduce duplication of effort by allowing member states to specialize in specific military capabilities for the benefit of the alliance. This relieves smaller armies of the expense of maintaining all capabilities, but requires integration with larger armies to be fully effective. As NATO intends, “Allies that maintain a broad spectrum of capabilities provide a framework for other Allies to ‘plug’ into,” according to NATO’s website.

My CBCT initiative would move beyond interoperability by organizing brigade combat teams that integrate American and European NATO components. The Army would provide the headquarters, fires, combat support and combat service support units to function as the backbone of a full brigade combat team. The Europeans would plug in tank, mechanized infantry, leg infantry and reconnaissance units that flesh out the CBCT for exercises to hone integration, and during mobilization. This advances the Framework Nations Concept objective “to reinforce engagement between countries as a mechanism for collective training and exercises in order to prepare groupings of forces,” as the NATO website says.

Guard Role

Given the new focus on large-scale combat operations, the U.S. Army National Guard could have broader roles for operating and generating forces, as Army Guard Director Lt. Gen. Jon Jensen has explained. That role could include the Army National Guard organizing a portion of the CBCTs. This would encourage DoD to prioritize modernization and readiness for participating Army National Guard CBCTs.

Not all NATO states should contribute to the CBCTs. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are front-line, ex-Soviet states with small armies that need everyone at home to man every bunker they build. Finland, Poland and Norway also are front-line states with substantial homeland defense needs.

Canada is in North America, so any forces it contributes would have to cross the Atlantic, though Canada could contribute to the CBCT backbone alongside U.S. troops. This may be a less politically sensitive means of utilizing Canada’s much-reduced land forces for NATO operations. France, Germany, Turkey and the U.K. are capable of deploying full brigades. Iceland and Luxembourg have no forces to contribute.

Of the remaining NATO armies, the smallest would contribute a single maneuver battalion to the CBCT initiative, while the remainder would contribute two. The smaller contributing countries could be Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden. The larger contributing countries could be Greece, Italy, Romania and Spain.

This scope of contribution provides 22 maneuver battalions from the participating NATO armies. Europeans thus would provide maneuver units to flesh out six CBCTs, assuming three to four battalions each, plus reconnaissance troops.

Preparing Allies

To prepare CBCTs, the U.S. Army can leverage existing security force assistance brigades and the National Guard State Partnership Program.

If focused on the CBCT initiative, the security force assistance brigades’ advise and training mission would have a larger impact. Currently, if three European battalions benefit from security force assistance brigade training, they may only be three separate—although improved—battalions. Those same security force assistance brigade-improved European battalions earmarked for a CBCT become part of a more capable brigade combat team.

The State Partnership Program is a global initiative that pairs state National Guards with a number of European militaries, among others. Jensen has said the Army National Guard has time and capacity to invest in relationships with allied partner armies. This long-standing program could build on those American-European relationships to share experience for enhancing European integration into CBCTs. The State Partnership Program should be resourced to train all European CBCT participants.

The CBCT initiative also will test NATO’s interoperability by identifying equipment and procedures not meeting standards. By expanding a NATO role in multinational army integration, the initiative also may preempt potentially disruptive European Union competition with NATO over warfighting roles.

While China is the pacing threat that the U.S. military measures its capabilities against, Russia is an immediate threat requiring greater effort by NATO. The alliance that won the Cold War is gone. Today’s NATO must reconcile its undermanned front line in the east and large-scale combat operations capabilities weighted to the western shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

Combat Power

In an era of great-power competition, the 2022 National Defense Strategy recognizes the importance of strong collective security to deter and defend against Russian military aggression, stating that DoD will work with allies “to better focus NATO capability development and military modernization to address Russia’s military threat. The approach will emphasize ready, interoperable combat power...”

NATO states have significant military power dispersed across Europe. The U.S. Army can create deployable combat power by aggregating numerous but atomized European NATO maneuver units into combat-ready brigade combat teams. The synergy of the Army CBCT initiative would promote the 2022 National Defense Strategy objective to “build capacity along Europe’s eastern flank” by meeting the need for faster deployment of NATO ground forces to deter—or, if necessary, defeat—aggression at the vulnerable front line of the alliance.

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Brian Dunn is a freelance writer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He retired in 2010 as a nonpartisan research analyst for the Michigan Legislature. He also served six years in the Michigan Army National Guard. He writes about defense and national security issues in his online journal, The Dignified Rant.