Army says 2nd Infantry Brigade combat team of 101st Airborne to redeploy to Kentucky ‘without replacement’
The US military is reducing the number of troops it has stationed in Romania, scaling back Nato’s deployment to countries along Europe’s eastern border with Ukraine, US and Romanian officials have announced.
In a statement on Wednesday, the US army said that the 2nd Infantry Brigade combat team of the 101st Airborne division would redeploy to its home-based unit in Kentucky “without replacement” as part of a plan to “ensure a balanced US military force posture”.
It was the first official acknowledgment from the United States of plans to scale down its footprint in Europe. The Trump administration has indicated that it is planning to prioritise its military presence in the Indo-Pacific region in order to combat the growing threat from China, as well as to focus on its own borders and priorities in the western hemisphere.
Roughly 4,000 troops had been deployed to Romania in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and were sent in part to reassure allies worried about the potential for Russia’s aggression to extend into Nato’s eastern flank.
