In February, the RAND Corporation highlighted these exact sorts of complexities in a report on a theoretical Russian invasion of Estonia and Latvia. The schedule gave American troops another seven days to get the tanks to their final destination and ready to go. The ground combat branch ultimately needed four days to get the vehicles into the Bulgarian port, on the boat and to Batumi. Two months after that, the Marines sent their own M-1s for training in Bulgaria. Air Force C-17 cargo planes dropped off a small number of Abrams in Bulgaria. state of Georgia brought tanks back to the Baltic region for more mock battles. In April 2015, another contingent from the U.S. After the last tank-equipped units left, the Army had set up the stockpile - called the European Activity Set, or EAS - for training and other purposes.įour months later, the ground combat branch sent another set of vehicles all the way from Texas to the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as to Poland. Army troops pulled Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles out of warehouses in Germany for a fresh round of exercises. Meanwhile, Russia boosted its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, sending in armored vehicles and artillery. The Pentagon dramatically increased the number of war games it participated in with NATO members and non-alliance partners, especially in Eastern Europe. president Barack Obama announced new troop rotations, more air and sea patrols and - most importantly - more money for military activities in Europe as part of the so-called “European Reassurance Initiative.” Less than a year later in March 2014, Russia invaded and annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region. The Army stood down its last tank units on the continent in 2013. With the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, Washington started drawing down its troops in Europe. “Instead, it continues to view the United States and NATO as a threat to its own security.” Air Force general Philip Breedlove, the head of European Command and also NATO’s top officer, said in a February statement. “It is now clear Russia does not share common security objectives with the West,” U.S. In addition to helping train the Georgians for routine tasks, the Pentagon no doubt hopes its tanks will make impressions in Moscow and in the capitals of America’s European allies. More than a decade later, the alliance accepted the mountainous country’s offer to join the NRF. Georgian troops have been fighting alongside NATO in Afghanistan since 2004. At top - Workers load an Abrams tank onto a truck in Georgia. Above - M-1s and other equipment roll off the ferry in Batumi.
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