Hundreds of U.S. combat vehicles on Friday began offloading onto the docks of Bremerhaven, Germany, where they will meet about 4,000 troops headed to Europe for a nine-month rotational deployment as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve.
The vehicles – 87 M1 Abrams tanks, 144 Bradley Fighting Vehicles – and other equipment, belong to the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat team, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson, Colo. The brigade also shipped 419 Humvees in several variants and 18 Paladin mobile gun platforms.
The equipment will move by rail, commercial line haul, and military convoy to various locations in Poland, according to the 4th ID. The unit’s arrival marks the first rotation of a continuous ABCT presence in Europe deployed on a toe-to-toe basis to shore up NATO’s eastern flank against Russian aggression.
The personnel and equipment will later be relocated throughout the region for training and exercises with European allies. The effort is part of our European Reassurance Initiative to maintain persistent, rotational presence of air, land and sea forces in Central and Eastern Europe. The Pentagon requested $3.4 billion for ERI in fiscal year 2017, which begins Oct. 1.
“The United States is demonstrating its continued commitment to collective security through a series of actions designed to reassure NATO allies and partners of America’s dedication to enduring peace and stability in the region in light of the Russian intervention in Ukraine,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters during a press conference on Jan. 5.
An Army combat aviation brigade (CAB) also will deploy to Europe as part of the ERI. The unit will station two dozen AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, 12 CH-47 Chinook heavy lift helicopters, 50 Black Hawk utility choppers and more than 2,000 troops in Germany, Poland and Latvia.