The Federal Republic of Germany has been a vital part of the United States' defense strategy in Europe ever since the end of World War II when US forces were part of a 10-year Allied occupation of the country. Though troop numbers have, of course, fallen significantly since those days, the US military still maintains a major presence in Germany, and over the intervening decades, US military communities have formed around a handful of German towns.

The total number of US military personnel has also risen significantly in the past few years, from under 39,000 in 2019 to over 50,000 in 2024.

The only other country where the US keeps a comparable number of overseas troops is Japan. That development also reflects a reversal of a long-term trend: German government figures show that between 2006 and 2018, the number of US troops stationed in Germany more than halved, from 72,400 to 33,250, as the US military responded to an increasingly complex global security situation.

The US has also deployed more troops to Europe since the start of Russia's full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with some soldiers deployed to bases further east to Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. The US Army currently has around 10,000 troops stationed at its garrison in Poland, and a further 2,600 in its Army Support Activity (ASA) Black Sea, which includes the Mihail Kogalniceau Air Base, Romania, and the Novo Selo Training Area, Bulgaria. Those troops are rotated regularly.

Germany's strategic importance for the US is reflected by the presence of US European Command (EUCOM) headquarters in the southwestern city of Stuttgart, from where it serves as the coordinating structure for all American military forces across 51 primarily European........

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