Russian Military Forces and America's Response

News reports keep claiming that Russia has positioned approximately 120,000 troops and associated vehicles around Ukraine and on its borders. My very rough guess is that equates to about 5-6 Russian divisions. American armored divisions are around 15,000 soldiers. But, you also need the logistics tail to support combat troops. Which can easily be three supporting and one actually in combat.

On the American side of the equation we are sending what looks like the "ready brigade" of the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg. This is a "light infantry" composition, so it is not equipped to face up to an armored division/opponent. However, it is very deployable and so off they go!

The total number of soldiers being "moved forward" to NATO countries is reported to be about 3,000. That is the equivalent of a brigade. One division would usually have three brigades.

Most Americans don't know that the United States Army is about half the size it was when I competed my military service in 1991. When I was in then West Germany in the 1980's there were over 250,000 American troops in Europe. Few remain today.

Really, what the deployment of American forces means is not so much a show of force, but a resolve to protect NATO countries, some of which were previously in the Soviet Union. Sending a message to Putin that there is "some resolve."

I had to laugh when a Ukrainian government official remarked about the support they were getting from Germany. Evidently Germany had sent Ukraine helmets. The counter to that was a remark like, "What's next, are they going to send pillows?"