{"id":9117,"date":"2026-04-30T22:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/9117\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T22:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:45:08","slug":"some-us-troops-cite-benefits-of-germany-presence-as-trump-threatens-pullback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/9117\/","title":{"rendered":"Some US Troops Cite Benefits of Germany Presence as Trump Threatens Pullback"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Cassell Bryan-Low, Louisa Off and Anja Guder<\/p>\n

HOHENFELS, Germany, April 30 (Reuters) – At \u2060a \u2060U.S Army training facility in Germany on Thursday, \u2060some senior officers highlighted the benefits of American presence in the country, a day after U.S. President \u200bDonald Trump said he was reviewing whether to reduce troop numbers in the country.<\/p>\n

The benefits of U.S. troops here include deterring adversaries, combat training with \u200callies on European terrain, and absorbing lessons from \u200cnearby Ukraine, they told Reuters and a small group of other media visiting the U.S. Army\u2019s only combat training center outside the U.S., located \u2060in Hohenfels, southern \u2060Germany.<\/p>\n

The handful of officers who spoke either did not comment on President Trump\u2019s\u00a0remarks, or declined \u200bto.\u00a0Spokespeople for the U.S. Army in Europe and Africa and European Command did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on how a troop reduction would impact activities in the country.<\/p>\n

Germany is the U.S. military\u2019s largest footprint in Europe, with some 35,000 active-duty military personnel, and serves as a key training \u200bhub. That includes the Hohenfels facility, which spans some 163-square kilometers of forest, hosts large-scale combat training for US troops as well \u2060as \u2060other NATO and partner nations.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, \u2060a U.S. armored unit was \u200ba week into a grueling\u00a010-day long exercise, which included evading an opposing force and its arsenal of surveillance and attack \u200bdrones. The brigade is at the end \u2060of a nine-month deployment in Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe as part of a U.S. Army-led initiative to support NATO while building readiness and enhancing bonds between ally and partner militaries.<\/p>\n

Their presence in Europe shows potential adversaries that in the event of a conflict \u201cthat they\u2019re going to face the most ready, trained, lethal fighting force, and not just the United States, but the United States and its NATO allies,\u201d said the brigade\u2019s commander, Colonel \u2060Michael Ziegelhofer. \u201cThe fact that we’re out here represents, you know, really our country’s support for NATO and our \u2060allies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Training with other nations is \u201cincredibly important,\u201d said Ziegelhofer, standing on the edge of a small mock town. \u201cIf a crisis were to take place over here, we\u2019d be in the fight together, so training like this helps us to build the interoperability, not just with the equipment that we have, but between the people and the systems and the processes in our unit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brigade has also been learning about drones during their deployment in Europe, added Ziegelhofer. \u201cWe worked all the way from learning how to fly them to getting pretty sophisticated in understanding the systems and processes, both in using them ourselves and how to counter the enemy’s use of those since we’ve been over here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The evolution of drones and\u00a0electronic warfare are among the lessons \u2060from the Russia-Ukraine war being incorporated into training, said Lieutenant Colonel Michael Cryer, commander of the opposition forces permanently assigned to Hohenfels training area, known as the \u201cwarrior\u201d battalion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been a cat-and-mouse game, as you’ve seen in Ukraine,\u201d he said. \u201cWhere one side develops this capability, another side develops a countermeasure.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the biggest challenges, according to the officer, is maintaining options for offensive maneuvers \u200bwhile being constantly surveilled by aerial drones. \u201cIt is nearly impossible to hide,\u201d Cryer said. \u201cAcross the army, we haven’t \u200btotally come to grips with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Cassell Bryan-Low; Editing by David Gregorio)<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.<\/p>\n

Photos You Should See \u2013 April 2026<\/p>\n

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