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Published time: November 26, 2014 10:37

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U.S. soldiers deployed in Latvia perform during a drill at Adazi military

base October 14, 2014 (Reuters / Ints Kalnins)

Tags
American armored vehicles sent to Poland
Arms, Army, Europe, Military,
and the Baltic States for military drills are to
Politics, Security, USA,
remain for the constant training of local
Vehicles
troops and rotation of US forces. More
fighting vehicles will be pre-positioned at US military bases in Germany.
The US Department of Defense intends to boost the number of its
armored vehicles on the territory of the NATO member states in Eastern
Europe.
READ MORE: There to stay: US troops keep Poland, Baltic deployment for

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2015
Next year the number of M1 Abrams tanks and M2A3 Bradley Fighting
Vehicles will reach 150 vehicles.
The troops will come over and train, and theyll go back. The equipment will
stay behind, the newly-appointed head of US Army forces in Europe,
Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, told AFP in a phone interview from
Estonia.
This is going to be a lot
cheaper than
transporting tanks
across the Atlantic for
ongoing joint training
missions of European
and US troops, which
are currently deployed
in the region for several
months, he said on
Tuesday.
Deployment of
additional hardware to
Baltic States and Poland
goes on within the
framework of the US
Operation Atlantic
Lieutenant General Ben Hodges (Image from
Resolve effort,
washingtoninstitute.org)
established to reassure
American allies in Eastern Europe anxious about a resurgent Russia.
After the reunification of the Crimean Peninsula with Russia and the civil
war in Ukraine, waged between the coup-imposed government in Kiev and
rebels in the eastern regions of the country, NATO members say they no
longer feel secure.

There to stay: US troops

keep Poland, Baltic
deployment for 2015 1374

Moscow slams NATOs

accusations of invasion in
Ukraine as groundless 1326

NATOs Estonia drills are

anti-Russian, dont make
Europe more secure
Moscow 1554

NATO asks US for more

troops in Baltic states,
Poland to counter Russia
threat 1552

Iron Sword 2014: NATO

stages massive military drill
in Lithuania 323

Poland to move thousands

of troops to border with
Ukraine 1602

I was in Lithuania yesterday, Estonia today, Poland a few weeks back. All I
get is thank you, thank you, thank you from those host nations for what
these soldiers represent, Hodges said.
The US currently has nearly 50 Abrams tanks and Bradley IFVs, taken to
Latvia and Poland this autumn.
Out of about 600 US Army troops of the 1st Cavalry Division, based at Fort
Hood, Texas, some 150 soldiers along with five M1A2 Abrams tanks, as
well as 11 Bradley Fighting Vehicles were deployed in Adazi, not far from
the Latvian capital, Riga. The rest of hardware and personnel went to

US tanks arrive in Latvia to

ward off perceived Russian
threat (VIDEO) 1488

US tanks arrive in Baltics,

Poland requests greater US

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Poland.
The 100 fighting vehicles supposed to be brought to Europe next year will
be pre-positioned in Germany - or elsewhere for the US troops
conducting drills with NATO partners, Hodges said.
Im going to look at options that would include distributing this equipment
in smaller sets, company-size or battalion-size, perhaps in the Baltics,
Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, places like that, he said.

U.S. soldiers deployed in Latvia perform during a drill at Adazi military

base October 14, 2014 (Reuters / Ints Kalnins)
These are not the first tanks newly deployed to Europe since the end of
the Cold War. In January this year, 29 M1A2 SEPv2 Abrams tanks arrived at
Germanys Grafenwhr training facility as replacements for 22 previously
retracted older vehicles, versions of the same military vehicles.
Until recently, the US had some 29,000 personnel permanently deployed in
Germany, Italy and Belgium. Now their number is set to grow, as NATO
member states have asked the Pentagon to send more troops to Eastern
Europe to counter the perceived threat of Russia.
The Operation Atlantic Resolve drills are set to provide assurance to those
allies that are closest to the [Russian] threat, Hodges said.
American tankers will be replacing each other every several months, he
said. The 1st Cavalry Division will be replaced in winter by personnel from
the 2nd Cavalry Regiment based in Vilseck, Germany. In spring, members
of the 3rd Infantry Division will come to replace colleagues.
This is going to go on, confirmed the general, noting that presence of

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American armored vehicles will continue through 2015 and well into 2016.

Members of the U.S. 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division
discuss in front of an Abrams tank during a joint military exercise with
Poland's 1st Mechanized Battalion of the 7th Coastal Defence Brigade
near Drawsko-Pomorskie November 13, 2014 (Reuters / Kacper Pempel)
Although Hodges does not question that Moscow seeks ways to drive a
wedge between the US and NATO member states, he doubts that Russia is
about to enter a military conflict with the alliance.
I don't think that Russia has any intention of some sort of a conventional
attack into NATO territory because they know that would generate an
Article 5 response by the rest of the alliance, Hodges said, as cited by the
Military Times.
The fact that NATO 28-nation military bloc is concentrating forces closer
to Russian borders has brought repeated and strident objections from
Moscow.
We shall provide an adequate and well-measured response to NATOs
expansion towards Russias borders, and we shall take note of [the West]
setting up a global missile defense architecture and building up its arsenals
of precision-guided weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the
emergency Security Council meeting in Moscow on July 22.
No matter what our Western counterparts tell us, we can see whats going
on. As it stands, NATO is blatantly building up its forces in Eastern Europe,
including the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea areas. Its operational and combat
training activities are gaining in scale, Putin said.

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529 comments
Login

Provocateur

Goooood moooorning TROOOOLS! Wanna taste some war ...? go talk to Uncle
Sam and his protege Barry ;-D
2 minutes ago

Reply

nothread

Be at RED SQUARE MARCH 9 2015..for GREAT EVENT!! all spies will be

there.
minute ago

Juraj Dolnik

Reply

...is easy to recognize the style and content of the speakers, there is no need
interpreters or tracking people
2 minutes ago

Provocateur

Reply

Barry O'Bomner and his allies go to War ;-D It's not that he wasn't warned that
doing stupid things can be harmful to his health ,,, ;-D
3 minutes ago

Tres Salinas

Reply

+3

If I'm not wrong, this act of putting such hardware along d borders violates
agreements not to mention the acts of economic sanction! Bottom line the USA has
declared war on Russia & has taken steps to engage it! The question is , how will
Russia respond! Will they allow themselves to be occupied By d USA who has used
this play book on Syria & Ukraine! Any defense by the targeted nation , is quickly
framed up as acts of a brutal dictatorship & not simply acts of defending the nation
from foreign terrorist! (Example: Assad) USA has legally stitched up their game & no
voice or sovereignty EU nation tax payers along w uSA just get d bill for d fraud.

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26/11/2014 7:25 PM