The US has plans to move troops out of Germany, and the Air Force is also ordered to move assets out. On Monday, Gen. Jeffrey Harrigan offered the first public comments on the Air Force plans, saying it is “going to take some time” to actually start drawing down assets.
Gen. Harrigan said the goal is to be transparent with European allies about any moves made, and to be deliberate about what is done. He added that the Pentagon would be determined to avoid anything that would impact Air Force missions within Europe.
Early speculation on the Air Force moves was one F-16 squadron being shifted from Germany to Italy, which would seemingly have a very minimal impact on operations. Why it would take so long to work this plan out isn’t at all clear.
Moving assets out of Germany is politically tricky, however, and there is a lot of bipartisan resistance to President Trump’s plan. This may explain plans to delay matters and be “deliberate,” as by the time they get around to moving, the plans may change.
If I were the Germans, Id give them a week.
All US forces should be removed from the European Continent , and all European skies should be closed to US military air craft IMO.
There is no good reason for US Air Force missions to be occurring in Europe at all.
The drawdown in Germany isn’t the election time grabber that drawdowns from Iraq and Afghanistan are. Therefore it will take a tad longer. A tad being years.
They are only going next door. Just imagine if they were meant to be returning home.