Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, talks to troops at Hohenfels Training Area in Germany on June 11, 2025. Donahue said June 25 during an event hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army in Washington that he expects troop levels in Europe to hold steady. (Brent Lee/U.S. Army)
The top U.S. Army commander in Europe said Wednesday that he expects troop levels to hold steady on the Continent, even as the Pentagon aims to shift more assets to the Asia-Pacific region.
“I don’t think that our force posture is going to change at all,” Gen. Christopher Donahue said during a presentation at the Association of the U.S. Army in Washington.
Donahue, the commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, said he’s met with “all the senior leaders” and “nobody has said anything” to him about reductions.
Donahue’s comments, made on the same day as a NATO summit in the Netherlands that was focused on increasing defense spending, came amid uncertainty about whether the Pentagon will maintain significant numbers of troops in Europe.
While the Defense Department hasn’t announced any troop cuts, an ongoing global force posture review is expected to have implications for how the military deploys its forces.
Top leaders, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have said European militaries must prepare to provide the bulk of conventional defense capabilities on the Continent.
That has raised questions about whether significant reductions loom in Europe, where the U.S. has about 80,000 troops
Donahue said he was confident that the Army’s missions would endure.
“I just don’t think there’s going to be a change,” he said, adding that to solve a deterrence problem in Europe “everybody’s got to step up and do their part.”
Donahue also said having forces in Europe doesn’t mean they must remain there if needed elsewhere in a crisis.
“This is a global Army; anybody that’s in Europe can deploy anywhere in the world,” he said. “You’re not in Europe. You just happen to live in Europe. You fight wherever we need you to fight.”
