The US Army is increasing its troop presence in Germany. The headquarters in Wiesbaden said, by 2020, about 1500 additional soldiers from the United States would be transferred to Germany and stationed here.
According to the statement, the increase in troops is a sign of "permanent attachment to NATO" and the "shared determination to support security in Europe".
The additional units are to be stationed in Grafenwoehr, Ansbach, Hohenfels and Baumholder, the statement said. In recent years, the Pentagon has ordered an increase in its US presence, especially in Eastern Europe, as its NATO partners feel threatened by increasingly hostile Russia.
Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen was pleased: "The US decision to strengthen our military presence in Germany is a welcome sign of the vitality of transatlantic relations," she said in Berlin. The stationing was a "commitment to common security".
In early summer there had been rumors that US President Donald Trump consider out of anger over Germany a complete withdrawal of the US Army. He was frustrated that Germany was only slowly increasing its military spending and that it would not reach NATO's so-called two percent target by 2024, as agreed.
In fact, at the beginning of the year Trump ordered the Pentagon to conduct a fundamental review of US troop presence in Europe. According to the US military, the main question was whether the US units to deter Russia should be stationed in Eastern Europe, rather than a complete withdrawal from Germany, instead of Germany.
The Americans have already stationed around 33,000 soldiers in Germany. For the US military, Germany is one of the most important hubs in Europe. The US handles the logistics for almost all foreign missions in the Middle East via the huge Ramstein air base. The base has been repeatedly in the news in recent years, since it also controversial missions such as the extrajudicial killings of terrorist suspects are planned and controlled by unmanned drones.
Not far from Ramstein, the US Army in Landstuhl also operates the largest US military hospital outside of America. Here wounded soldiers are supplied in foreign missions. In Stuttgart, there is also the headquarters of Africom, which controls all US operations in Africa.