US military personnel are a common sight throughout Europe, deployed to Germany as well as to remote areas such as the Azores, Romania, Northern Norway, Sicily and many other places.
But since returning to the White House in 2025, US President Donald Trump has threatened to cut the number of troops at those bases, particularly in Germany. A similar announcement halting scheduled deployments to Poland was walked back Thursday, when Trump said he would send an additional 5,000 troops there because of his good personal relationship with Poland’s right-wing nationalist President Karol Nawrocki.
Why are there so many US troops stationed in Europe?
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The US, NATO’s largest military power, saw permanently stationing troops in Europe as an important deterrent against the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact defense alliance. US President Harry S. In line with the security principles issued by Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, American bases were established throughout the continent.
At the peak in the late 1950s, approximately 475,000 US military personnel were deployed to Europe. This presence was established on the basis of NATO regulations and various bilateral agreements with the respective host countries. From 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the number of US troops gradually declined to the thousands.
This gradual decline reversed slightly after Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea after 2014, sparking a renewed desire for European military deterrence.
Where is the US military’s largest presence?
Most of the American troops are stationed in Germany. More than 36,400 active-duty military personnel were still stationed there at the end of last year, according to the US Defense Department. EUCOM, the US command center for European military operations, and AFRICOM, which coordinates missions on the African continent, are both based in Stuttgart, southwestern Germany.
Headquarters U.S. Air Forces for Europe and Africa (USAFE-AFAFRICA) is located in Ramstein, in the western German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The airbase serves as a major hub for missions spanning the Middle East. Nearby Landstuhl, meanwhile, hosts the largest US military hospital outside the US.
It is believed that the US keeps about 100 nuclear weapons at Buchel Air Base in Germany. According to NATO’s nuclear sharing principle, these weapons could be delivered by European pilots in an emergency, but only with Washington’s permission.
Italy has the second-largest US military presence in Europe, with about 12,700 US troops, according to data as of the end of 2025. The United Kingdom comes in third place with about 10,200. It hosts a variety of important NATO airbases from which the US can launch fighter jets, strategic bombers and aerial refueling aircraft.
Italy also has airborne brigades as well as a small number of combat aircraft that can be deployed as a quick reaction force across Europe or Africa. Meanwhile, Naples hosts the headquarters of U.S. Naval Operations in Europe and Africa (NAVEUR-NAVAF).
These US troop numbers do not include units that were deployed specifically to eastern NATO bases after the annexation of Crimea.
Why are US troops still in Europe?
The US uses its European bases for global operations. For example, German and British bases were used to launch air strikes on Iran earlier this year. However, several NATO allies have restricted recent operations originating from their territory, among them Italy, which has barred bombers and transport aircraft from landing at the US logistics base Sigonella in Sicily.
Spain also restricted the use of its bases, but also closed its airspace to American aircraft. After this, Trump threatened to withdraw troops from both the countries.
Europe’s strategic importance for America stems from its geographical location. If American units were to be deployed to an area such as the Middle East, it would be quicker to send them from Europe than to the American continent. Even direct flights have limited range.
The same applies to communications signals, which is why the US operates a drone signal relay station in Ramstein, Germany. This explains why German courts have examined whether Germany should intervene to stop US drone strikes that violate international law.
The rotating units on NATO’s eastern flank play a very specific role in the alliance’s deterrence against Russia, with the US leading a Poland-based multinational battle group. In 2016, NATO decided to establish four such battle groups to win time in the event of a Russian attack. These are not permanent military deployments; Personnel changes every six months.
Initially, these battle groups were relatively small to underline their defensive character. Then, as part of NATO’s Operation Atlantic Resolve, additional US air, land, and naval forces were deployed to Germany and Poland as reinforcements.
What military deployment issues are currently unresolved?
In mid-May, the Pentagon canceled the deployment of approximately 4,000 troops to Poland in the context of the Operation Atlantic Resolve troop rotation. This decision came at the very last moment, when the vehicles had already been sent out, and the troops had already prepared for departure.
While US news outlets reported that Pentagon budget constraints were the reason for the sudden decision, other analysts have linked the move to Trump’s repeated threats to cut the number of US troops in Europe.
But this week, Trump made another U-turn and announced the deployment of 5,000 additional troops to Poland. Trump did not specify whether the troop rotation would proceed, whether some forces would be withdrawn from Germany or other units would be mobilized.
In early May, Trump announced he would withdraw 5,000 US troops from Germany after clashing with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the ongoing conflict in Iran. But despite the strong words, observers remain skeptical that the US will actually reduce its military presence in Germany. It said, Washington has made it clear that a previous agreement between the two countries’ previous leaders – Joe Biden and Olaf Scholz – to deploy US medium-range missiles in Germany by 2026 to deter Russia will not be honored.
This article was originally written in German.