In early 2022, President Biden ordered the United States to reinforce NATO's eastern flank, sending additional rotational forces to Europe alongside NATO's battle groups in response to Russia's unprovoked aggression against Ukraine to deter threats against our NATO Allies. Over the past two years, the United States has maintained an increased force presence by continually replacing the bulk of those units when their rotations to Europe end. In close cooperation with our NATO Allies, the United States continues to make force posture enhancements in alignment with the strategic environment, follow through on the commitments President Biden announced at the 2022 Madrid Summit, and join Allies in implementing a new generation of NATO's defense plans and strengthening NATO's defense and deterrence capabilities which leaders agreed at the 2023 Vilnius Summit.
U.S. actions to strengthen NATO deterrence and defense include:
- Establishing a permanent V Corps Headquarters Forward Command Post in Poland, which improved U.S.-NATO interoperability across the eastern flank.
- Maintaining an additional rotational Brigade Combat Team in Europe, positioned in Romania, with the ability to deploy subordinate elements for training and exercises across the eastern flank, for a current total of five Brigade Combat Teams in Europe as of July 2024.
- Providing enhanced rotational deployments in the Baltic region including armored, aviation, air defense, and special operations forces, building further interoperability and intensified training with these Allies, and enhancing our ability to quickly reinforce and provide combat-credible defenses. We have maintained a persistent, heel-to-toe presence in the region and will intensify training with our Baltic Allies.
- Reaching agreement with Spain to increase the number of U.S. destroyers stationed in Rota from four to six, with the fifth destroyer arriving in Fall of 2024 and sixth planned for 2026.
- Stationing two squadrons of F-35 aircraft in the United Kingdom.
- Stationing additional air defense, sustainment, and other enablers in Germany and Italy.
- Modernizing the safety, security, and reliability of NATO's nuclear deterrent.
- Making preparations to support NATO's new family of defense plans, including pledging a significant number of U.S. forces to NATO's plans.
- Scheduling the Aegis-Ashore site in Poland for transfer to NATO control in July 2024. The first Aegis-Ashore site, in Romania, transferred to NATO control in 2016.
- Continuing to lead the NATO Forward Land Force Battlegroup in Poland while also providing forces in the NATO Battlegroups established along the eastern flank.
- Providing U.S. support as host nation to upgrade Joint Force Command Norfolk to make it equally capable with NATO's other two Joint Force Commands.
- Activating a Theater Medical Command, Space Component Headquarters, and Engineering capabilities in Germany.
- Making significant investments in prepositioned equipment and infrastructure across Central and Southern Europe, the eastern flank, and the High North.
- Continuing to support enhanced Air Policing of NATO's eastern flank, support the Standing NATO Maritime Group, and NATO missions and operations in the Balkans and Iraq.
- Establishing Operation Atlantic Resolve as a contingency operation, demonstrating the United States' commitment to support and sustain an enhanced presence and level of operations in Europe.
- The United States will begin episodic deployments of the long-range fires capabilities of its Multi-Domain Task Force in Germany in 2026, as part of planning for enduring stationing of these capabilities in the future. When fully developed, these conventional long-range fires units will include Standard Missile (SM-6), Tomahawk, and developmental hypersonic weapons, which have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe. Exercising these advanced capabilities will demonstrate the United States' commitment to NATO and its contributions to European integrated deterrence.
Our Allies continue to step up as well, and have significantly enhanced their contributions to NATO through identified forces, capability investments, and establishment of combat-credible units able to scale up to brigade size across the eastern flank.
Through bilateral and multilateral training and exercises, the Alliance has accelerated improvements in command and control, including Multi-National Corps Southeast, and NATO's four Multi-National Division Headquarters.
We salute all our men and women in uniform from across North America and Europe who continue to serve daily to keep us safe.
