As Army transformation advances in formations across the force, U.S. Army Europe and Africa is taking what’s being learned and working with allies across Europe to build their capacity, a senior officer said.

“Operationally and strategically, we’re very focused with our partners and allies right now on our immediate deterrence posture,” Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, a senior officer with U.S. Army Europe and Africa, said during the recent Maneuver Warfighter Conference at Fort Benning, Georgia.

“This immediate deterrence posture … really coheres existing plans, and it complements the forces that are already in place,” Norrie said via livestream from Wiesbaden, Germany.

The focus with partners and allies includes persistent sensors and live data in functional command posts, where formations communicate from command post to command post, “not discreetly as part of an exercise, but every day,” Norrie said.

As U.S. units become conditioned to working with partners and allies, they are solidifying good working habits and developing a good common operating picture and an exchange of information, Norrie said. They also are creating an understanding of how integrated “kill webs” work, how data is fused and integrated, and how planning and acting at echelon is done, he said.

The help U.S. Army Europe and Africa is rendering includes prepositioning supplies and other resources throughout the theater. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead here,” said Norrie, who until July was commanding general of the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia.

“If you look at the spectrum of conflict, phase zero may be kind of where we are right now,” Norrie said, referencing the military planning phase that involves establishing a deterrence posture before conflict arises.

“We’re just ensuring we’re in a really good stance, so if something happens, all of our leaders have options,” Norrie said.

The immediate deterrence posture is focused on the Eastern flank deterrence line, where there is an interoperable network of unmanned sensors linked by next-generation command and control, artificial intelligence-assisted decision-making capability and a kill web and “what that might look like not only in Europe but around the world of anti-access/area denial,” he said.

There also are persistent training exercises. One such event is a large-scale exercise taking place this month with participation by most allied commands, joint forces commands, U.S. Army Europe and Africa, the Supreme Allied Command and U.S. European Command. The focus of the exercise, Norrie said, will be interoperability, combining headquarters and understanding how to target at scale. “This is really a consistent focus here in U.S. Army Europe,” Norrie said.