NATO Is Preparing to Confront Russia With Limited US Support
The worst-case scenario is now a possible one: European troops fighting off an invasion largely alone
An Airbus attack helicopter during a NATO military training exercise in Cincu, Romania.
Photographer: Andrei Pungovschi/BloombergA French Cayman helicopter flies low over a lush Transylvanian valley, dropping three soldiers onto the grass. The hills erupt with the boom of Caesar cannons and Leclerc battle tanks under NATO command.
The wargame in November offered a glimpse of the alliance’s likely future as President Donald Trump reduces US deployments in Europe. In the natural defensive line of the Carpathian mountains, a full-brigade level deployment of European soldiers under French command was defending the continent largely without the US.