U.S. to Pre-position an Additional 250 Tanks in Europe

Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter, announced six European NATO members would receive elements of the brigade-sized force. His announcement was made as he stood with Baltic leaders to reassure NATO Allies of America's support for the organization and its members.

For the past year, a U.S armored brigade has been traveling through Europe, conducting live-fire exercises with allies, in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve. It appears as though this brigade will be staying.

The U.S. already has an additional armored brigade stationed at the U.S. Army’s Grafenwoehr Training Area in southeastern Germany, home to the Army’s only permanently forward-based training command, 7th Army, Joint Multinational Training Command. This would bring the the total tally for the U.S.’ ground footprint to nearly 500 tanks and armored vehicles, a force larger than most countries armies, but not Russia’s.

The Russian Armed Forces boast of more than 6,000 operational tanks in various classes, with approximately 17,000 mothballed, but they could, with relative ease, be brought back into service. These numbers dwarf its European neighbors. Though most of the Russian tanks are not on par with the M1A2 Abrams and its European peers.

Carter’s announcement came just a few days prior to NATO doubling the size of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF), from 7,000 to 30,000, along with Carter’s separate announcement that the U.S. would contribute Special Forces and high end assets to the VJTF. All of these efforts are in response to Russia's invasion and annexation of parts of Ukrainian territory.

Carter is also concerned that Russia carried out a series of exercise near the Baltics, close to NATO members, when it invaded the Ukraine. It had moved a sophisticated attack helicopter squadron and a VDV battalion from deep within Russia to directly on the border. When the exercises were over, Russia never moved them back, thus offsetting the balance of power. Since then Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland have asked to have U.S. troops permanently stationed in their respective countries to ward off Russia and to restore balance, and that’s exactly what they received with the armored brigade stationed in Europe.

When Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, it was using an exercise as an excuse to build up troops and equipment at Georgia’s doorstep, the same cover was used for the Ukrainian invasion. Conducting exercises to shield an invasion has set a dangerous precedent.

For now, NATO will take protective measures whenever Russia has a major exercise. This increases the likelihood for an accident that could lead to war. Though NATO’s countermeasures to the Russian “exercises” drains members defense budgets, putting troops and equipment on 24 hour alert is very expensive. This year, even in light of Russian aggression, European members are decreasing their defense budgets, largely relying on America to pick up the slack.

Contending with Russia comes at a time when America is facing increased aggression from China in the Pacific, where the likelihood for conflict only increases with each passing day, putting the U.S. military between a rock and a hard place.

I can guarantee you this though, with an extra armored brigade in Europe, you will see a lot more live fire exercises like in the video below.

This article will be updated as new information becomes available.