US European Command is undergoing a huge change. (Read our article from 2003 for background.) Large American bases reminiscent of the Cold War are being replaced with smaller regional training centers, such as ones that are being established in Romania and Bulgaria, where combat brigades will rotate on training and security cooperation missions. To help with this transformation, said EUCOM’s new deputy commander, Army Gen. William Ward, the command has created an Eastern European Task Force. The EETF comprises a small permanent staff whose function is to aid those US forces rotating through Romania and Bulgaria.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
