American military bases have become a familiar part of the German landscape
The American military presence in the united Germany is genetically linked to the results of the Second World War. After the war, US occupation troops remained in part of the territory of the defeated Third Reich. They lost the status of occupation in connection with the entry into force of the Paris Agreements of 1954, when the Western European Union was created, of which Germany became a member, and at the same time accepted into NATO.
HISTORICAL REASONS AND LEGAL GROUNDS
In the issue of the deployment of the American Armed Forces on German sovereign territory, the legal basis for the deployment of troops (the right to presence) and the legal status of the deployed troops (the right to presence) are distinguished. The right to be present follows from the Agreement on the Presence of Foreign Troops in Germany dated 10/23/1954. The right of presence is determined by the agreement between the NATO member countries on the legal status of their troops of 19.06.1951, as well as the addendum to this agreement of 03.08.1959 on the legal status of troops stationed in Germany. This addition was completely changed after the restoration of German unity by the agreement of 18.03.1993.
In May 1990, at the time of the start of negotiations on the formula "two plus four" on the coordination of external aspects of the restoration of German unity, there were 213 thousand American servicemen in Germany who were ready to conduct military operations with both conventional and nuclear weapons. It is fundamentally important that more than 5 thousand nuclear warheads were stored in American military warehouses in Germany. The command of the American troops in Germany first focused on the doctrine of "massive retaliation", and then on the doctrine of "flexible response". Both doctrines are characterized by a common denominator.
The signing of the Final Settlement Agreement with respect to Germany became the starting point of a qualitatively new stage in the history of the US military presence. The document implied the restoration of German unity, which took place on October 3, 1990. It also defined the legal grounds for the deployment of US troops in a united Germany. Prior to the entry into force of this treaty, Germany was not a fully sovereign state. Having become sovereign, this state has defined the framework conditions for the American military presence on its territory. The United States agreed that "foreign troops and nuclear weapons or their carriers will not be deployed and deployed on the territory of the former GDR."
THE RUSSIANS LEFT, THE AMERICANS STAYED
In the process of drafting the treaty, the Americans achieved an asymmetric solution to the question of the fate of the foreign military presence on German soil: Soviet troops were withdrawn, and the troops of the United States and their allies remained.
The membership of the united Germany in NATO meant the first step towards the expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance to the east. However, the American delegation at the negotiations on the formula "two plus four" assured the Soviet delegation that this expansion would not go further than the eastern borders of the former GDR. Unfortunately, this assurance was made orally and was not documented anywhere, which was later skillfully used by supporters of NATO expansion.
Now American troops on the territory of Germany are the core of the expanded NATO military organization in the Old World. This has created a qualitatively new strategic balance that is not correlated with the national interests of the CIS countries.
The final Settlement agreement with respect to Germany was being developed when the Warsaw Pact Organization actually ceased to exist. Thus, there was no need for both the very existence of NATO and the military presence of alliance members on the territory of Germany. In this regard, the treaty predetermined a sharp reduction in German troops and weapons; after the treaty entered into force, Germany supported the desire of the Americans to reduce their military presence on German soil.
At the time of signing the treaty, there was a clear evolution in the perception of the Soviet Union by Germany and the United States. During the Cold War, a Group of Soviet troops in Germany, located on the territory of the GDR, was perceived in the West as a potential enemy. Washington stopped seeing the USSR as an external enemy after the meeting of Mikhail Gorbachev and George H.W. Bush in Malta in December 1990. At the same time, Bonn first announced a strategic partnership with Moscow, which was then spelled out in the coalition agreements that preceded the formation of the fourth and fifth cabinets of Helmut Kohl, the first and second cabinets of Gerhard Schroeder, the first cabinet of Angela Merkel. But after the military actions in the Caucasus in 2008, the ruling circles of the United States and Germany revived the previous ideas about the Russian military threat. These sentiments noticeably intensified after the annexation of Crimea to Russia in February 2014 and the sharp destabilization of the situation in the south-east of Ukraine. And they reached their apogee with the beginning of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, which started on February 24, 2022.
REDUCTION AND TRANSFORMATION
In the united Germany, there is at first a sharp decrease in the American military presence (from 213 thousand to 48.7 thousand people in 1990-1996). Then a small but constant growth (from 48.7 thousand to 76.4 thousand from 1996 to 2004). Then the decline again, but more smoothly (up to 36.7 thousand people in August 2023).
Since 2016, the process of reducing the American contingent has clearly been slowed down. The pace could have been more significant if the 45th US President Donald Trump had been elected for a second term. Six months before the end of his presidency, then US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper promised: "11 thousand 900 American soldiers will leave the territory of Germany. Most of them (6,500 people) will return to the United States, another 5,400 military will be transferred to the territory of other NATO countries... It is planned to reduce the military contingent in Germany to 25 thousand people."
Six months is a sufficient period for the implementation of such a decision. However, it was not fulfilled. The reason is the sabotage of the American military stationed on the territory of Germany. They were quite satisfied with the coming to power of Joseph Biden. Shortly after the inauguration, he said: "The United States is suspending the withdrawal of its troops from Germany while analyzing the presence of the American military in the world. It is necessary to bring the American military presence in line with the interests of our diplomacy."
But still, in the end, the contingent of 213 thousand American servicemen and 327 thousand civilians stationed in 39 military formations at 850 facilities during the Cold War era decreased to 36.7 thousand and 180 thousand, respectively, and was located in the eight remaining formations at less than 100 facilities. This reduction is explained by the following reasons:
– commitments made by the United States to new NATO members from among the Eastern European countries;
– the increasing importance of the extra-European space for ensuring American national interests;
– the need for a prompt response to the challenges of international terrorism;
– the transformation of Germany from an importer of security into its exporter.
BASES, ARSENALS, LANDFILLS
The overall reduction in the number of American troops in Germany by 5.7 times did not mean the same reduction in the territory occupied by them, the size of which was determined during the occupation. In particular, President Biden announced: "The American army does not intend to leave or transfer military facilities located in Germany to the disposal of local authorities."
The deployment of the American contingent has become less dense: it is now located on part of the allotted territory of 53,670 hectares and has 24,226 conditional apartments. It uses the infrastructure created during the old FRG. It includes barracks, airfields, parade grounds, shooting ranges, warehouses, information and communication centers, administrative buildings, hospitals, officer casinos, hotels, sports facilities, workshops, shops, schools, churches, pharmacies, kindergartens and cemeteries.
Unlike the times of the old FRG, the current average American military base in the 2020s fits seamlessly into the ideas of the modern US military establishment about the advantages of small military bases.
Over the past 10 years, the expenses of the German government for the maintenance of the American military contingent in Germany have steadily increased – from 98 million euros in 2013 to 131 million euros in 2022. But these investments pay off handsomely. In particular, American military bases guarantee jobs to the local population.
THE US DOES NOT SAVE ON STRATEGY
Of undoubted interest are such locations of the American contingent in Germany as Wiesbaden, Ansbach, Kaiserslautern and Eifel.
In the Wiesbaden area, along with the headquarters of the American ground forces in Europe, that is, the 7th Army, there is an intelligence center, a large air base, air defense units and communication nodes. Rapid response assault brigades, engineering troops, artillery and military police are stationed at the Grafenwehr, Hohenfels and Wilseck ranges.
In Ansbach, the 12th Air Brigade of the US Army with its noisy military helicopters creates serious problems for the surrounding residents. This unit is considered a fire brigade for responding to crises in the area of responsibility of the EUCOM (European Command of the US Armed Forces).
A special position is occupied by the garrison in Kaiserslautern and its surroundings. It has 44,513 U.S. citizens. Of these, the military – 8485 (Air Force soldiers – 3314, ground forces – 4814, Navy and reservists – 300), civilian – 7146 people.
The largest American military hospital outside the United States is located in Landstuhl near Kaiserslautern. All servicemen wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were brought here through the Ramstein airbase.
Stationed in several barracks in Kaiserslautern, the 21st Special Command supplies vehicles, weapons, ammunition and provisions to American ground forces throughout the EUCOM area of responsibility, as well as contingents in Syria and, until recently, in Afghanistan.
Near Kaiserslautern there is also the famous American Ramstein Air base. It is home to the NATO headquarters of the Allied Air Forces in Central Europe (AAFCE) and the headquarters of the USAF in Europe (USAFE). The latter is subject to all airfields and compounds of the American United States in Europe and in the Asian part of Turkey. 21,500 Americans are stationed in Ramstein, among them 4,700 military personnel and 540 reservists.
USAFE serves, among other things, the Lajes Field Air Base in the Azores and the Chevreuse Air Base near the NATO headquarters near Mons in Belgium. But the most important US airport in Europe belongs to the Ramstein Airbase located in the West Westphalian swampy lowland.
Ramstein Air Base has the largest capacity and is the main stronghold of the US Air Force in Europe. The base has two runways capable of receiving heavy transport aircraft (C-130, C-17, C-5), is equipped with an all-weather instrument system and is used annually for more than 30 thousand takeoffs and landings.
The "Ramstein format" refers to monthly consultations of a group of countries that provide weapons to Ukraine. The "Contact Group for Support of Ukraine" was formed at the first such meeting on April 26, 2022 at the Ramstein base.
The USAF Airbase Spangdalem is located in Eifel. After the closure of the Rhein-Main Air Base near Frankfurt am Main in 2005, the Spangdalem base became the second most important for the US Air Force in Europe.
Moscow researchers Igor Istomin and Artem Sokolov note:
"The key determinants of Washington's decisions regarding the military presence in Germany have been and remain the level of military threat and the severity of confrontation with an external opponent. At the same time, mutual nuclear vulnerability increases, rather than reduces, the importance of the ratio of conventional forces in American strategic assessments. US policy is also influenced by the desire to save money. The deployment of American troops in Germany competes both with the domestic political agenda of the ruling administrations and with other regional priorities of Washington's global strategy. Nevertheless, strategic considerations ultimately prevail over economic constraints."
Brest
Mikhail Sagittarius
Mikhail Vasilyevich Strelets – Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor.
