Will U.S. Scale Down Military Presence in Germany?

It's not all 'GI Joes' at the Spangdahlem U.S. airbase. The base in the south Western German state of Rhineland Palatinate is not just home to 5,000 U.S. airmen and women, but is also the region's biggest employer.

800 German employees who live in the surrounding towns and villages work at the base and the presence of the U.S. military provides around 20,000 further jobs in the area, according to a recent study by the University of Kaiserslautern. Nationwide, some 12,000 resident Germans are directly employed by the American military in Germany.

But all these jobs could be under threat if rumors of a massive re-structuring of U.S. European military deployment are to be believed.

Last weekend, military planners from the U.S. delegation at the Munich Security conference suggested that plans were afoot to radically restructure its European military presence.

The current 70,000 U.S. troops stationed in Germany (100,000 are stationed across Europe in total) are deployed at sprawling, heavily staffed Cold-war era style bases. But, if the new proposals go ahead, such bases will be closed and U.S troops will be moved to lighter-staffed mobile units in cheaper eastern European countries, like Hungary and Poland. The resulting savings would be spent on better housing and schooling for U.S military personnel, planners say.

No concrete plans

But the military in Germany is strongly denying that there are any concrete plans as yet. "There are currently no force structure changes being coordinated between the U.S. and Germany," a spokesman for the U.S. European Command told DW-WORLD.

"Given time, we have numerous plans regarding the most effective deployment of military worldwide," and "in the event of any final decision regarding any changes, the German government will be consulted and public announcements made as soon as possible," the spokesman said.

The spokesperson also slammed press reports that the plans to take U.S. troops out of Germany was linked to the current anti-war position taken by the German government. "I would call drawing any correlation between the German position on Iraq and any plans to change deployment structures 'erroneous'," the spokesman said.

Fearing for their jobs

But for the Germans who work at Spangdahlem, losing the base would mean losing their livelihood. A study by the University of Kaiserslautern cites how the U.S. military presence in the region has become a fixed feature not just of economic but cultural life in the region.

"It would be very bad if the base was to close," Christoph Holkenbrink, Mayor of Wittlich-land, who represents 25 communities around the Spangdahlem air base told DW-WORLD. "I wouldn't say that there is a sense of panic at the rumors, but there is a certain sense of uncertainty in the community," Holkenbrink said.