US military logistics to Europe are 30% more efficient today than at the start of the war in Ukraine

The war in Ukraine has put American military logistics to Europe to the test, after 30 years of wasteland. But the American General Staff is satisfied with the progress made in recent months in this area, with a 30% increase in efficiency observed.

Between 1969 and the beginning of the 90s, NATO conducted a large exercise called Reforger almost every year, in the autumn or at the beginning of winter. This aimed to simulate the massive deployment of American forces in Europe to face a hypothetical Warsaw Pact offensive.

At the height of tensions, in 1983, during the Euromissile crisis, Reforger mobilized no less than 125.000 American soldiers who were deployed in Europe to supply the IIIᵉ, Vᵉ and VIIᵉ Corps of the US Army, participating in the defense of Europe.

At that time, the Pentagon's logisticians had acquired highly efficient know-how and organization to streamline, over the course of the exercises, transatlantic rotations, whether of men, heavy equipment, or munitions. or foodstuffs.

With the end of the Cold War, the Reforger exercise naturally lost its interest, and its last iteration, Reforger 93 which took place in May 1993, only concerned a few American units positioned in Federal Germany.

If American logisticians had other theaters in which to exercise their talents, in the Middle East, first against Iraq, then in Afghanistan, know-how in Europe has declined significantly in recent decades.

The Russian offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, and the increase in American aid to Kyiv but also to its European allies in recent months, was therefore a real challenge for the men and the infrastructures which no longer had experienced such activity for 30 years.

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