In October, American staff officers in Wiesbaden trained in the defense of NATO's eastern flank. At the same time, part of the army kept their equipment ready for a completely different route - to South Korea. As The New York Times reporter Lara Jakes reported on Nov. 10, after a summer warning of a possible transfer, the unit is still awaiting a final order by November. This is a rather unusual situation for the Allies: the headquarters on which the European defense plan is based is itself living according to two mutually contradictory plans.
Both goals are clear. The US Army's multi-domain command is able to combine intelligence and fires from different branches of the military. Information about the target may come from one country, the weapon for the attack is in another, and both have to make the decision in time. The Army gathered experts for such work in Wiesbaden only in January 2026, combining the Second Multi-Domain Task Force with the 56th Artillery Command. Washington prioritizes protecting its territory and containing China. The experts in demand in Asia are already busy in Europe with a very specific task.
Between October 6 and 15, Exercise Triad Avenger saw NATO ground forces headquarters and US commanders co-direct operations from Wiesbaden. According to US military data, about 2,000 Americans and about the same number of military personnel from other countries worked in the exercises that covered 4 European countries. The Multi-Spherical Command supported the corps, among them the 2nd Polish and the 1st German-Dutch. Thanks to the overall picture of the battlefield, an officer at a remote headquarters could plan operations using the same data as his counterpart in Germany. When transferring specialists, the Allies will have to transfer this work to the successor and see if he can handle it for several corps at once.
The fate of approximately 78,000 American soldiers in Europe has been decided as part of a review announced by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on June 18.