US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced on Thursday that the United States will soon remove roughly 7,000 additional troops from Europe. There are currently 81,000 US troops stationed in Europe with three brigades in Germany and one in Italy. After the withdrawal, Germany will be left with just one US Army brigade, but the two affected bases have not yet been released to the public.
Last year, it was already announced that one of the brigades would be shut down in Germany, with a total withdrawal of between 10,000 to 15,000 troops. According to Panetta, the United States will be regularly rotating it’s brigades between Europe, South America, and Africa and the US security commitment to Europe will remain steady.
