so this is causing the reevaluation of all of the things we say and do about force structure in Europe.” Breedlove says he doesn’t believe a

drop in U.S. force strength in Europe encouraged Putin to illegally annex Crimea or cause mischief in Ukraine. Those are more complex issues hav- ing to do with Putin’s “perception of how NATO has encroached on his area,” he says. Adm. James Stavridis, USN (Ret),

was supreme allied commander for NATO when President Barack Obama’s administration announced downsizing plans in Europe. Now dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University near Boston, Stavridis says recent Rus- sian behavior enhances the argument for reversing part of the past decade’s decline in U.S. ground forces. “We are still fairly strong in air and maritime [forces],” says Stavridis. “But I would argue the idea of put- ting another brigade combat team or two back into the European theater would make some sense.”

58 MILITARY OFFICER JUNE 2015

If there’s not political support or dollars to do that, he adds, there should be at least “a fairly robust schedule of rotating battalions and ... occasionally rotating a BCT in there.”

Continued presence It’s unlikely any force structure cuts “on the books” will change, Breedlove says. Therefore, he must deal with the realities of “our current fiscal- challenged environment” and look at other options. One is Army Europe’s plan for European Activities Sets or the prestaging of heavy equipment in Europe for stateside fast-response forces to fall in on. Meanwhile, show-of-force rota-

tions have increased beyond Army battalions to include deployment of fighter aircraft from England to the Baltic; the return of some M1 tanks, this time to Latvia; and the return of a dozen A-10 attack aircraft to Germany and on to an air base in Romania.

Operation Atlantic Resolve ac-

tivities are wide-ranging and involve forward-deploying Patriot missile batteries and a number of naval fleet exercises with Eastern European ships in the Black Sea. But rotational forces, Breedlove

says, “can never match permanently stationed U.S. forces in Europe. It’s all about relationships. It’s about trust. It’s about those connections a per- manently stationed force has.” With rotational forces, allies perceive a dif- ference in the level of commitment. It’s possible to provide the same military utility as permanent forces but not to build those relationships that are so important, Breedlove says. “These relationships over the years have bought us a lot of things: access and overflight and throughput in these nations.”

(above, from left) U.S. soldiers work with Macedonian army soldiers in August 2014 to renovate a school. USS Donald Cook (DDG-75), forward deployed to Rota, Spain, conducts flight quarters with a U.K. Royal Navy Lynx helicopter. U.S. servicemembers work with a Latvian servicemember, center, during a NATO training ex- ercise in March. (right) F-15 Fighting Falcons from the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano air base, Italy, participate in a training sortie with the Estonian air force in March.