US Army Increasing Presence in Germany

The US military is planning to triple its forces deployed in Ansbach, Germany  in 2017.  Apparently, the region should become the hub for units to be moved to Eastern Europe. The Left Party is afraid of Ansbach possibly becoming a hotspot of a Russian-American military confrontation.

Obviously, the US Army will significantly expand its presence in the region around Ansbach, the newspaper Nordbayern reports. “Rotation units” – which will be stationed for about nine months each, in the border region with Russia, shall be transported via Ansbach. Therefore, the number of soldiers in the 12th Aviator Combat Brigade is expected to triple from 2017 on.

“A request for 2,000 troops has already been filed, who are supposed to be deployed in the next year, but a decision has not yet been made,” Captain Jaymon Bell, spokesman of the 12th German Aviator Combat Brigade, is quoted by Nordbayern newspaper. Currently, around 1,000 US troops are stationed in Ansbach-Katterbach and the nearby Illesheim.

Local citizen initiative expects “a massive increase of exposure to aircraft noise and emissions”. Ansbach should not become a pawn of military interests. Regarding the Americans, the initiative also refers to the “traditional mentality of occupiers”.

Member of the Left Party of the German Bundestag, Harald Weinberg, fears that “Ansbach could become the central hub of a Russian-American military confrontation, which would be decided on European soil”.