U.S. Army has to borrow helicopters, weapons for NATO exercise

The drawdown of U.S. forces in Europe, combined with cuts to the U.S. defense budget, has forced the U.S. Army, Europe to borrow weapons and equipment from its NATO allies in order to participate in the continent’s largest NATO exercise in 13 years.

The number of U.S. military personnel permanently based in Europe has shrunk to 30,000 from a peak of 300,000 at the height of the Cold War. The last of the Army’s European-based tank units pulled out three years ago, and last spring the Army announced it would relocate 54 combat helicopters to the United States.

“I don’t have bridges, I don’t have the trucks that can carry tanks, we don’t have enough helicopters to do what we need to do,” Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the Army’s commanding general in Europe, told The New York Times. “Practicing with British helicopters here is an essential part of it. Using British and German bridges, using Hungarian air defense is part of it.”

The Army put plans in place to rotate equipment, such as Blackhawk helicopters, back to Europe periodically to support exercises and meet America’s NATO obligations, but transporting them by ship takes weeks and air transport by cargo plane is expensive.

Russia’s annexation of Crimea, its military incursion into eastern Ukraine, and aggressive military activity in the Baltic region prompted the defense ministers of NATO’s 28 member countries in June to approve a range of upgrades to the alliance’s capabilities.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has promised to preposition 250 tanks, armored vehicles, and other equipment in several of NATO’s easternmost member countries that feel most at risk from Russia.

But it’s not just weapons that are needed, according to Hodges, who told the Telegraph America no longer has the “intelligence capacity to do what we need to do” and that, as a result, he had been “surprised” by Russia’s actions in Ukraine and in Syria.

“We don’t have that many Russian speakers anymore,” he said. “I personally have been surprised by every single snap exercise and when they went into Syria. We just do not have the capability to see and track what they’re doing the way they used to.”

As its permanent presence in Europe has dwindled, the United States has increasingly relied on Britain and other NATO countries for support and equipment. An increasing reliance by the U.S. Army on its allies may be sending a signal that NATO member states should strive to achieve the required defense spending level of 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). According to the Heritage Foundation, only four NATO countries have met this target, including Britain, which formally reaffirmed its defense spending commitment in June.

“One of the most important things that happened in the past year was the U.K. saying it would maintain its 2 percent GDP,” Hodges told the Telegraph. “If the U.K. had dropped off, that would have taken all the pressure off the other European countries.”