60,000 US troops based in Europe Biden may spring into action to defend against Russian aggression

Nearly 64,000 US troops are ready to be stationed in Europe, on the continent’s eastern flank, if President Biden uses that appeal against Russia’s growing aggression along the Ukrainian border.

As Vladimir Putin deploys 100,000 Russian troops along the Ukrainian border and continues to fear an invasion, the United States may be preparing its troops and weapons depots to be stationed across Europe, including 40 warships, 175 planes and 90 tanks. .

Military officials have presented the commander-in-chief with a plan to send up to 50,000 troops if the security situation deteriorates and Russia launches an invasion of Ukraine.

At the same time, the US told families at the US embassy to return home “because of the constant threat of such an attack,” the State Department said on Sunday.

While the number is changing due to changes in withdrawal and deployment, the US had around 175,000 troops deployed overseas as of September 2021. A total of around 64,000 troops were stationed in Europe.

The United States has 750 military bases in 80 countries.

Command of 40 US warships is based in Italy, and the US has already built its muscles by sending ships to Russia in a politically occupied Black Sea.

Germany has the largest US deployment in Europe, with only Japan and the US having the most US troops there. There are 35,468 US soldiers in Germany: 21,585 from the Army, 13,009 from the Air Force and a small number of soldiers from the Marine Corps and Navy.

There are 21 US military bases across Germany, most of them in Stuttgart, the US European Command (EUCOM) headquarters, and the US Africa Command headquarters in Rammstein, the US Air Force headquarters in Europe.

And while Germany once housed up to 5,000 American tanks during the Cold War in 1989, it’s not a permanent home now.

The Army will temporarily deploy an armored brigade, each with a nine-month rotation. Typical armor consists of 90 M-1 tanks and 130 Bradley fighting vehicles and approximately 18 M-109 self-propelled howitzers.

But the problem remains: Europe’s outdated bridges may not be ready for the 68-ton M-1 Abrams tanks. The army struggled to buy more armored bridges to help these heavy vehicles pass.

The M-1 Abrams have been used in war zones since the 1980s, and Bradley’s fighting vehicle is a heavily armed armored vehicle that fires to cover enemy lines. Howitzer is a 30-ton weapon capable of hitting targets within a 19-mile radius.

And while NATO has around 130 tanks, including 90 US vehicles, Russia, even before its last aggression, had around 760 tanks at the time of the attack with NATO members in the Baltic.

Ukraine borders four NATO countries: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

Italy is the second largest US country in Europe with 12,436 troops, 4,081 in the Army, 4,742 in the Air Force and 3,497 in the Navy. The Port of Naples is the headquarters of the Sixth Fleet, the Europe-Africa Navy of the United States Navy.

Two squadrons of US F-16 fighter jets are stationed at Aviano Air Base. The F-16 is a popular air-to-air fighter used by the 25th Air Force.

There are 9,576 American soldiers in the UK, almost entirely members of the Air Force, from a small number of other branches.

Spain has 3,423 US troops, Belgium – 1,143, Greece – 429, Portugal – 259 and Romania – 132. Several other countries have fewer than 100 US troops.

There are also currently more than 150 US military advisers in Ukraine who have worked for years at a training camp near Lviv. Includes special operations forces, primarily Army Green Berets and National Guard trainers from the Florida Infantry Brigade’s 53rd Combat Team.

While the US intends to quickly withdraw its military trainers from Ukraine in the event of a full-scale Russian invasion, it is also possible that some US forces will remain on the advice of officials in Kiev and support the front line. US Times.

However, around 6,000 US troops are stationed in Eastern Europe on a rotating basis, of which around 4,000 are currently in Poland.

The US Sixth Fleet, led by the European Command, is made up of approximately 175 aircraft and 40 warships. The headquarters of the European Command is in Germany.

Biden’s potential plan is to send 1,000 to 5,000 troops to NATO countries like Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, which border Russia.

The number of soldiers could increase to 50,000 if the security situation deteriorates with the new deployment of ships and planes.

The plan did not involve US troops stationed directly in Ukraine, but Biden hated to enter another conflict after the catastrophic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan last year. The information is published by The New York Times..

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has ordered 8,500 US-based troops to be ready for deployment to Eastern Europe, the Pentagon said on Monday.

The NATO Response Force is made up of approximately 40,000 international soldiers from the ground, air and naval components of Special Operations Forces (SOF).

“It’s really about getting people ready to go,” Defense Department spokesman John Kirby told a news conference later that day. He said most of these troops will be ground troops.

He said they would be ready should NATO step up its NATO Response Force (NRF) or in the event of a “deteriorating security environment”.

Meanwhile, NATO announced on Monday that its members must send additional warships and warplanes to Eastern Europe to counter Russia’s growing presence.

Vladimir Putin has sent more than 100,000 troops to the Ukrainian border, and Blinken warned last week that Russia has the potential to double that number in a short time.

To reinforce containment, Denmark is sending a frigate to the Baltic Sea and is ready to send four F-16 fighter jets to Lithuania. Spain is sending ships to join NATO naval forces and is considering sending four F-16 fighter jets to Lithuania.

France has said it is ready to send troops to Romania, while the Netherlands plans to send two F-35 fighter jets to Bulgaria in April.

The NATO statement came after reports that Biden weighed up to 50,000 troops in the event of a deteriorating security situation in the region, with more deployments of ships and planes.

Since late December, the Air Force has regularly flown the RC-135 Rivet Joint electronic intercept aircraft over Ukraine to listen to communications from Russian ground commanders, the Times reported. The Air Force is also carrying out ground surveillance flights with the E-8 JSTARS to track the buildup of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border.

The spy plane’s mission is to find any indication that Russia is considering the deployment of nuclear weapons on the border with Ukraine, which Russian officials have already warned about.

On Sunday, Ukraine’s defense minister welcomed the arrival of a second shipment of US military aid.

“The second bird in Kiev!” Olex Reznikov wrote on Twitter. “More than 80 tons of weapons to strengthen Ukraine’s defense capabilities of our friends in the US! And this is not the end.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday night, a senior State Department official warned that “Russian military action could take place at any time” and urged Americans who wish to leave Ukraine to do so soon.