NATO exercises

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Three dozen NATO exercises: what will be the response

Armored personnel carriers, tanks and heavy weapons are rolling across Europe - NATO is starting a cycle of three dozen military exercises, which will be held primarily in Poland and the Baltic countries. An entire tank brigade will arrive from the United States and will be stationed in Poland.
The first US Panzer Brigade Ironhorse from Fort Hood, Texas, arrived at the port of Antwerp, Belgium this weekend. 3,5 thousand soldiers, 87 heavy tanks, 138 howitzers and armored personnel carriers, several thousand military transport vehicles left the ship.

They will continue the way to garrisons in Poland by rail, and will overcome another thousand kilometers through Germany and Belgium. In the opposite direction follows the Second Tank Brigade from Fort Riley, which will go home after 9 months of stay in Poland.

This rotation with complex logistics is required because of the cooperation agreement signed with the Russian Federation in 1997, according to which NATO guarantees not to permanently deploy large military units on the territory of the Warsaw Treaty states, which lost legitimacy in 1991.

After the conclusion of the treaty and the formation of the Russia-NATO Council, this was no problem. However, after the annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of war in Ukraine, NATO is doing everything it can to calm the encroachments of the east and warn Mr. Putin of irreversible consequences. The strengthening of the military presence and the conduct of exercises are intended to demonstrate the determination of the alliance in protecting its interests.

Several of the largest exercises are held in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. The SIIL-18 (SIIL 18) maneuvers in Estonia have already ended, in which more than 10 thousand servicemen took part. A three-week US-led Saber Strike exercise will begin in early June, involving 18 NATO soldiers. At the same time, 2,5 military personnel will undergo training in Latvia as part of the Summer Shield exercise.

The largest NATO exercise scheduled for this year is the Trident Juncture. They will take place in October with the involvement of approximately 35 soldiers, 130 aircraft and 70 ships. The place of the exercise is the territory of Norway, the Baltic and North Seas. This will be one of the first large-scale maneuvers aimed at reaffirming the organization of the alliance forces and their readiness to respond to any threats that would not come before them.

One of the most difficult tasks is to circumvent the various rules that apply in certain European countries, which make it difficult to transport military equipment and weapons.

With difficulties already encountered in the ports of the North Sea: Antwerp, Bremerhaven, and Rotterdam, where not to find a sufficient number of port workers trained to unload and disperse tanks. In addition to the labor force, there are not enough other things at the arrival sites of military units, from trailers to railway wagons capable of transporting heavy vehicles.

The problems were learned only when NATO began to send troops to the east during the Crimean crisis, and the military leadership faced bureaucracy, many bans and customs officials.

 “Some cars had to fill out questionnaires on 100 pages,” said Ben Hodges, who at the time was the Supreme Commander of the American Army in Europe, in an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

Representatives of the logistics center of the US Army in German Kaiserslautern told the newspaper that because of paper red tape the first machines were sent to their destination in only 30 days. Currently, the timeframe has been reduced to 5 days.

Ben Hodges says: "we must move in our territory at least as fast as the Russians in theirs. "

During the Cold War, everything was easier. Then the United States had almost a quarter of a million soldiers in West Germany, which would be the first state on the front line at the outbreak of war with the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries.

Many units of weapons were based in the country, and everything was put on alert for an invasion meeting.

But in 2013, the last of the American tanks departed from here home. The Cold War was over. The Soviet Union was no more, and most of the countries that were part of the Eastern European defense alliance, have already become members of NATO.

Now the region's armament is strengthening again. In addition to joint training programs, the Americans are going to deliver weapons to four mechanized brigades in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

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