How Can Europe Reduce Its Military Dependency on the United States?

“European armies are too small to handle even the arms that they’ve got now,” said Jim Townsend, a former U.S. assistant secretary of defense now at the Center for a New American Security.

“The British and the Danes, to pick two examples, are good militaries, but they would not be able to sustain intense combat for more than a couple of weeks,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how good you are if there aren’t enough of you.”

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The problem is not just the numbers in uniform, but also the imbalance between combat troops and the “back offices” of European militaries, leading to a shortage of soldiers skilled in high-tech warfare. Military salaries are comparatively low; retention of skilled soldiers is difficult; and most armies, when they cut back after the Cold War, did so in areas of so-called combat service support, including intelligence officers, medical personnel and mechanics.

“You don’t see them on parade, but you can’t fight a real war without them,” Mr. Townsend said.

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