US rotates new troops to Baltics, Marines upgrade prepositioned stocks

Posted on: August 18th, 2014 by Will Rodriguez 1 Comment

The Army has announced that it will be replacing the 600 troops from the 173rd currently in Lithuania Estonia, Latvia and Poland with 600 troops from the Fort Hood based 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division.  They will bring M1 Abrams tanks and Bradley Infantry fighting vehicles.  That should bolster the brigade minus set of equipment currently stored in Germany especially if left in place after the three month rotation.

The 173rd troops in Poland recently conducted weapons familiarization training with the Polish Land Forces 6th Airborne Battalion, 6th Airborne Brigade firing Polish UKM-2000 machine guns, the Polish M-83 9mm pistol, AK47s and RPGs.  Operation Atlantic Resolve is scheduled for a year in response to the Russian annexation of Crimea and continued instability in Ukraine.

In a related but separate development the Marines are upgrading prepositioned weapons stocks in Norway positioned to outfit a Marine Expeditionary Brigade.  Vehicles to be added to the prepositioned stocks include M1A1 Abrams Tanks, Tank Retrievers, Armored Breeching Vehicles, Amphibious Assault Vehicles, Expanded Capacity Vehicle (ECV) Gun Trucks and several variants of the MTVR 7 ½ ton trucks.

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