Mentors by Land, Partners by Air

While US Air Forces in Europe is looking to decrease mentorship of smaller militaries to free funding for cooperation with more capable peers, US Army Europe is reinforcing its outreach. “I can train your guys relatively cheaply from a land-force perspective,” Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, US Army Europe’s commanding general, told reporters Wednesday in Washington, D.C. “Because of the technology involved in air combat . . . what I’ve got to do is a little bit different, because we build armies,” he explained. The Air Force is looking to regional partners to help shoulder the burden of NATO security, but the Army is focused on stabilizing allies, he said. “As we wind down in Afghanistan . . . the transition should be, ‘How do you prevent future wars?'” said Hertling. Providing partners with “the competence” to defend themselves is the surest way to accomplish this, he added.