US Army strengthens its presence in Baltic countries

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Defence & Security News - United States

 
 
Thursday, September 18, 2014 05:31 PM
 
US Army strengthens its presence in Baltic countries

The United States will send four tanks, 12 infantry combat vehicles and 150 troops to Latvia in order to bolster the security of the Baltic nations, a spokesperson for the Latvian Ministry of Defense Kaspars Galkins said Thursday, September 18.

     
The United States will send four tanks, 12 infantry combat vehicles and 150 troops to Latvia in order to bolster the security of the Baltic nations, a spokesperson for the Latvian Ministry of Defense Kaspars Galkins said Thursday, September 18.
U.S. Soldiers from 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division travel in a Bradley Fighting Vehicles during Combined Resolve II Military Drills
     
The Latvian military official said that a squadron of the US 173rd Airborne Brigade, stationed at a military base in Adazi, will be replaced by a same-level unit of the 1st Cavalry US Army Division, consisting of two squadrons, one of them equipped with 12 Bradley infantry combat vehicles and the other one with four Abrams tanks.

The US military will be engaged in training Latvian and other NATO member nations’ troops, Galkins added.

In April, Washington sent troops to Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to support its NATO allies amid the Ukrainian crisis. During his September visit to Estonia, US President Barack Obama reassured the Baltic nation with support from Washington over alleged Russian aggressive foreign policy toward Ukraine. Estonia currently stations over 150 US troops from 173rd Airborne Brigade, with the country’s Defense Ministry also saying the United States will replace them with 1st Cavalry US Army Division personnel, tanks and combat vehicles.