While US Army officials insist no specific decision has been made on any new deployments, officials familiar with the situation say that the Army has begun seeking sites for new bases in Europe, with a pair of locations in Northern Germany having already been scouted.

It is interesting that Germany is being scouted, since most recent US deployments into Europe have been further east, with an eye toward getting large numbers of troops along the Russian border. US troops have deployed to Poland and the Baltic states.

It’s also surprising because it was only a few years ago that the US was openly trying to reduce the number of troops deployed to Europe as a money-saving measure, and as a part of a planned “Asian pivot” that would get more US troops deployed around the Pacific rim.

Of course, this is par for the course for the Pentagon, where paying for a new deployment by cutting out an old one often ends with the US doing both, and Congress cheerfully footing the bill irrespective of the justification for the deployments, or lack thereof.