German-led enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group performs a river crossing in Lithuania during exercise Iron Wolf 2017.

I find the way the Europeans do river crossings interesting.  Of course we don't see them securing the far bank, setting up security and the like.  But the actual mechanics of the thing seem extremely slow.  Instead of setting up a bridge the instead use a "ferry type system".  I've seen that bridging vehicle but that's not the point.

It really seems like a slow way to move more than a company's worth of vehicles across a river...especially a big one.

I'm not saying that the US Army's method is better.  Just saying that from my chair while it might take longer to get the bridge em-placed, they're able to get their forces across faster and in a more complete unit.

Of course moving a USMC unit can conduct the movement even faster but it comes with a price so its essentially a wash.

But back on task.  Why did the Europeans go with the ferry method instead of doing actual bridging?