Study: Stationing Brigade in Europe Saves Money, Stress

Study: Stationing Brigade in Europe Saves Money, Stress

Soldiers with the US Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment fire upon the opposing force during Exercise Saber Junction 23 in Hohenfels, Germany.
Photo by: U.S. Army

Instead of relying on nine-month deployments to Europe, the Army should forward-station troops in allied European countries, according to a recent report from the Atlantic Council.

“Assuming the United States maintains some kind of troop presence in Europe … relying primarily on rotational presence doesn’t make sense fiscally,” writes author John Deni, a research professor at the Army’s Strategic Studies Institute and a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative. “This may seem counterintuitive, but recent U.S. Army data indicate that recurring annual costs of back-to-back nine-month deployments outweigh those associated with basing units in Europe on a full-time basis.”

Continually rotating an armored brigade combat team into Europe costs almost $70 million more annually than stationing troops in Germany or Poland, Deni found.

Though building the infrastructure to support an armored brigade combat team could be “significant,” host nations can utilize cost sharing to reduce U.S. expenses.

“For example, the Polish government has borne nearly all costs associated with building facilities in Zagan, Poland, hoping to host an American Armored Brigade Combat Team,” Deni writes. “The cost of this investment is roughly $3.6 billion, all of which is paid by Poland.”

Aside from cutting costs, shifting away from continuous deployments may ease the negative effects of high deployment tempo on troops, including increased domestic violence, divorce rates and suicides in the months following redeployment from overseas rotations, brigade commanders told Deni.

“It’s unclear whether reducing the number of back-to-back rotational deployments while increasing the number of forward-stationed troops in places like Germany or Poland would lower the incidence of divorce or suicide among troops in tank brigades—though given the human toll of those incidents, experimenting with ways to ease the burden on servicemembers and their families is worthwhile,” Deni writes.

Forward stationing an armored brigade combat team in Germany or Poland would cut costs, reduce deployment tempo for troops and deter Russia while reassuring allies and partners in the region, Deni wrote.

“The time may be ripe to reconsider reliance on rotational deployments,” he writes. “In an era when the size of the U.S. Army remains flat or is actually shrinking, forward stationing an Armored Brigade Combat Team in Europe means transferring an existing one from somewhere in the United States, not building a new one overseas.”

Read the full report here.