International security

Trump’s military shuffle in Europe will take time and be costly

The United States will take years to move its main military command in Europe from Germany to NATO headquarters in Belgium and updating facilities will be costly, three former senior officials said.

Despite concerns that the move announced on Wednesday is politically motivated, they told Reuters that “streamlining and rationalising” the U.S. military presence in Europe made some strategic sense.

Under a plan to reduce U.S. troop numbers in Germany, President Donald Trump has instructed the United States European Command (EUCOM) to be moved from Stuttgart to Mons, near Brussels.

Mons is where NATO has its Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), the defence alliance’s top military command.

“This is not picking up your tent and moving to a different campground,” said retired U.S. General Ben Hodges, who commanded U.S. army forces in Europe from 2014 until 2017. “SHAPE is desperately in need of renovation and repair.”

Jamie Shea, a former senior NATO official now at the Friends of Europe think tank in Brussels, said the buildings at SHAPE “date from the 1960s and look as if they date from the 1960s.”