ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

U.S. Army Europe is in “a pretty healthy place” despite challenges brought on by the global COVID-19 pandemic, and the command is already planning for Defender-Europe 2021, a top general said. 

“We’ve been able to work with our host nations to continue to flow personnel into and out of Europe,” Brig. Gen. Sean Bernabe, deputy commanding general of Army Europe, said during a virtual panel hosted by Defense News on July 9.  

The U.S. Army faces an “extraordinary time” as it rebuilds readiness, modernizes capabilities, faces a global pandemic and drives for long overdue changes in cultural and racial issues, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said July 13 in remarks at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute.

More than 6,000 U.S. and Polish soldiers will participate in a June exercise marking the U.S. Army’s gradual return to large-scale training exercises amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The exercise, named Allied Spirit, was originally scheduled for May, and it was to be linked with Defender-Europe 2020, the Army’s largest exercise in Europe in decades. Defender-Europe was largely canceled because of the pandemic.

The Army has stopped movement of soldiers and equipment from the U.S. to Europe for the Defender-Europe 2020 exercise, the service announced March 16.

The decision comes as the Army works to modify the exercise, which was slated to be the largest Army exercise in Europe in more than two decades, in response to the global COVID-19 outbreak.

The Army has set up a 24-hour hotline for soldiers and families affected by travel restrictions put in place to try and contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

The hotline, 1-888-276-9472, aims to help soldiers and families whose permanent change-of-station moves from overseas locations have been halted or affected.

The Army is scaling down its upcoming Defender-Europe 2020 exercise amid growing concerns about the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

The March 11 announcement from the U.S. European Command is the latest in a series of actions being taken across the military to try and contain the spread of the virus. It also comes as the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic, and President Donald Trump announced a 30-day ban on travel from several European countries to the United States.

The Army has begun moving the first of about 20,000 pieces of equipment bound for Europe as part of the largest overseas exercise in more than two decades.

On Jan. 23, vehicles, heavy equipment and materiel were loaded for rail transport and onward shipping from Fort Hood and Fort Bliss in Texas and Fort Stewart, Georgia. The equipment is bound for ports in Europe as part of Defender-Europe 20, the Army announced in a news release. The shipping will continue through late February.