"The US Army is preparing to fight in Europe, but can ..." Topic

…it even get there?.

"WASHINGTON — With Russia's reemergence as a menace in Europe, the U.S. Army has been laying the foundations to fight once again on the continent it defended through most of the 20th century. But if war were to break out tomorrow, the U.S. military could be hard-pressed to move the number of tanks, heavy guns and equipment needed to face off with Russian forces.

And even if the Army could get there in numbers, then the real problems would start: how would the U.S. sustain them?

The U.S. sealift capacity — the ships that would ultimately be used to transport Army equipment from the states to Europe or Asia — is orders of magnitude smaller than it was during World War II. Combine that with the fact that the commercial shipbuilding industry in the U.S. is all but gone, and the U.S. can't launch the kind of massive buildup of logistics ships it undertook during wartime decades ago….."
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Amicalement
Armand

Russia ain`t the Soviet Union. Russia has an economy smaller than Australia's and has its own military problems.

The US still has a big submarine fleet, and the SOSUS arrays. That will really help prevent any Russian submarines (or surface ships!) from getting too deep into the North Atlantic.

We'd probably have to park 2 carrier groups in the Atlantic to provide cover against any Russian Bomber regiments, though.

I'd also shift an F22 Squadron or two up into Canada or Greenland to thin down the Bombers before they got to the carrier groups and convoys.

How did our people get to Iraq? This is the 21st century, people fly!

The U.S. sealift capacity — the ships that would ultimately be used to transport Army equipment from the states to Europe or Asia — is orders of magnitude smaller than it was during World War II.

The more things change, the more they say the same. I remember reading articles like this back in the 80's that wondered if we have the logistical capacity to support our forces in Germany. I don't think they ever solved that problem back then.

Maybe that should go on Trump's to-do list along with rebuilding our manufacturing base.

Air and cruise missile superiority. Let's not forget drones as a force multiplier. Tanks have an average 1.5 minute survivability when air superiority is lacking. Russian air forces are woefully overmatched. Yes ground forces are needed but less if defending and not trying to invade.

As mentiined above, C5s and similar will get tanks over much quicker. Cargo ships are slow moving, vulnerable targets. And should we mention NATO allies?😉

We'd probably have to park 2 carrier groups in the Atlantic to provide cover against any Russian Bomber regiments, though.

Without the F-14/AWG-9/AIM-54 Phoenix, that will be a dicey proposition. Of course, I'm willing to bet the Russians don't have the money to buy enough missiles to fully arm the few remaining Bears, Backfires and Blackjacks.

FatherofallLogic,

The troops fly. The gear sailed.

Desert Storm, all our gear for my Bn went by rail to bremerhaven and then by ship to the Gulf.

For Enduring Freedom, much lighter gear and troops flew (I loaded planes for this) but most still went over land. Few MRAPS were flown in… most went by lowboy or convoy.

This is 2018 and not the 1980's. The Russian military is not the Soviet military. Any future conflict will most likely involve a Russian snatch and grab on one of the Baltics. The rest will depend on how Europe wants to react. Depending on what happens in the USA politically in the next few years will affect how that country reacts.

Yea, we'll lose a carrier or three, if they ever go up against Russian aircraft launching long-range cruise missiles in droves, I imagine, and quite a few jets too, since the SuperHornet isn't.

For the vessels, we'll probably have to lease/impress supertankers and cargo ships to get a lot of kit "lifted" to Europe, and much of it will arrive far too late.

Even the stuff that gets there can't be moved internally within the EU, due to rail and road restrictions, and varying countries' regulations.

The Russians can have those small Baltic states, if/when they want them, within 24 – 48 hours, and there's virtually nothing we can do about it. If we and others threaten to counterattack, Putin can pull out the "I'll nuke you" card in response, as he and his ministers have threatened openly before.

I imagine there is little that would be done against that backdrop.