Drones to replace – in part – the army? The idea was suggested by a US study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), discovered by Defense News. The United States begins to reduce its military presence in Europe, particularly in the east, and focuses more on the national territory and the Pacific area.
Even if some affected countries put withdrawal into perspective.
“We are not talking about a withdrawal of US forces, but about the cessation of the rotation of a brigade that had elements in several NATO countries, including Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary,” the Romanian Minister of Defense clarified this week.
However, for the Romanian president’s former national security advisor, George Scutru, this is “a bad signal sent to Russia” regarding the Black Sea region.
CSIS, however, analyzes the change in doctrine on the deployment of ground troops.
aerial drones
The author transfers this concept to the military world and gives the following definition: “a military substitute is an element, a capability or an employment concept that can replace or compensate for the operational effect of another element, for a given mission, in a theater of operations, within the expected time frame and respecting risks and political limitations.”
For this reason, it analyzes the contribution of drones in this area, without questioning the principle of having troops on the ground, but rather “having more modular capabilities, allowing a single drone to perform several missions.”
Following this logic, CSIS advocates the use of drones to replace part of the military units stationed in Europe, “in order to reduce the strategic cost and risks associated with the change of priorities” of the Trump administration.
The objective would be, in particular, to deploy MALE (medium altitude long endurance) drones, to strengthen intelligence, surveillance and area reconnaissance capabilities, instead of deploying infantry brigades and armored vehicles.
The goal is to continue support for European allied countries, while reducing the footprint.
The more than 85,000 US military personnel present on European soil, including 20,000 who arrived as reinforcements after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, are spread across 37 bases, including 13 in Germany, which bring together almost half of the US military workforce, or almost 36,000 as of June 30, 2025.
Source: BFM TV
