United States plan to send a brigade of tanks in Germany to have quick response capabilities 11307151

Defence & Security News - United States
 
United States plan to send a brigade of tanks in Germany to have quick response capabilities.
The U.S. Army’s top general is drawing up plans to station up to a brigade’s worth of tanks and other heavy equipment in Germany as part of an expanding effort to beef up the military’s quick response capabilities in the region.
     
The U.S. Army’s top general is drawing up plans to station up to a brigade’s worth of tanks and other heavy equipment in Germany as part of an expanding effort to beef up the military’s quick response capabilities in the region. U.S. M1 Abrams battle tanks during a joint training of Polish and US army subdivisions on the military training area in Drawsko Pomorskie, northern Poland, 13 November 2014.
     

In addition, the Army also is planning to add more “regionally aligned” U.S-based forces to Europe, which means more soldiers could soon be rotating through the Continent as the military aims to increase its presence in places such as the Baltics and Poland, according to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno.

Odierno, in a Friday interview with the Wall Street Journal, said the additional tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and other gear, would enable the Army to accelerate deployments to Europe in a crisis.

“It would allow us to reinforce quickly, if we had to reinforce NATO,” Odierno told the Journal.

Odierno’s comments come only weeks after an announcement by the Pentagon that the Army will also preposition roughly 250 tanks and other armored vehicles at locations in the Baltics, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria.

Odierno also wants to designate the entire Colorado-based 4th Infantry Division as a regionally aligned force for Europe. Such a designation would mean the division’s brigades, helicopters and various specialists would be a regular presence for security exercises in Europe.