Reuters, Washington :
The United States plans to store heavy military equipment in the Baltics and Eastern European nations to reassure allies made uneasy by Russian intervention in Ukraine, and to deter further aggression, a senior U.S. official said on Saturday.
“We will pre-position significant equipment,” the official said, commenting on a New York Times report that the Pentagon was poised to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 troops.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to comment on the details of the report, which cited U.S. and allied officials.
The report said the move, if approved, would mark the first time since the Cold War that Washington has stationed heavy military equipment in the newer NATO member states in Eastern Europe that once formed part of the Soviet sphere of influence.
The proposal, which seeks to reassure European allies in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in March 2014, is expected to be approved by U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and the White House before a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels this month, the paper said, quoting senior officials.
Asked about the article, a Pentagon spokesman said no decision had been made about the equipment.
“Over the last few years, the United States military has increased the prepositioning of equipment for training and exercises with our NATO allies and partners,” Colonel Steve Warren said.
“The U.S. military continues to review the best location to store these materials in consultation with our allies,” he said in a statement.
“At this time, we have made no decision about if or when to move to this equipment.”
As it now stood, the Times said, the proposal envisaged that “a company’s worth of equipment, enough for about 150 soldiers, would be stored in each of the three Baltic nations: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Enough for a company or possibly a battalion, or about 750 soldiers, would be located in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and possibly Hungary.”
However, as a result of the Ukraine crisis, NATO and the US have decided to bolster forces in the region, which they say is to send a clear message to the Russian government that NATO will defend its alliance members.
“This is a very meaningful shift in policy. It provides a reasonable level of reassurance to jittery allies, although nothing is as good as troops stationed full-time on the ground, of course,” James G. Stavridis, a retired admiral and the former supreme allied commander of NATO, who is now dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, told The New York Times.
The stocks of heavy weapons would be enough to equip a brigade of about 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers and is about the same as the Pentagon kept in Kuwait after the 1990 invasion of Iraq.
But the proposal still has some way to go before it becomes a reality, and requires approval from Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and the White House.
The United States plans to store heavy military equipment in the Baltics and Eastern European nations to reassure allies made uneasy by Russian intervention in Ukraine, and to deter further aggression, a senior U.S. official said on Saturday.
“We will pre-position significant equipment,” the official said, commenting on a New York Times report that the Pentagon was poised to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 troops.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to comment on the details of the report, which cited U.S. and allied officials.
The report said the move, if approved, would mark the first time since the Cold War that Washington has stationed heavy military equipment in the newer NATO member states in Eastern Europe that once formed part of the Soviet sphere of influence.
The proposal, which seeks to reassure European allies in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in March 2014, is expected to be approved by U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and the White House before a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels this month, the paper said, quoting senior officials.
Asked about the article, a Pentagon spokesman said no decision had been made about the equipment.
“Over the last few years, the United States military has increased the prepositioning of equipment for training and exercises with our NATO allies and partners,” Colonel Steve Warren said.
“The U.S. military continues to review the best location to store these materials in consultation with our allies,” he said in a statement.
“At this time, we have made no decision about if or when to move to this equipment.”
As it now stood, the Times said, the proposal envisaged that “a company’s worth of equipment, enough for about 150 soldiers, would be stored in each of the three Baltic nations: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Enough for a company or possibly a battalion, or about 750 soldiers, would be located in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and possibly Hungary.”
However, as a result of the Ukraine crisis, NATO and the US have decided to bolster forces in the region, which they say is to send a clear message to the Russian government that NATO will defend its alliance members.
“This is a very meaningful shift in policy. It provides a reasonable level of reassurance to jittery allies, although nothing is as good as troops stationed full-time on the ground, of course,” James G. Stavridis, a retired admiral and the former supreme allied commander of NATO, who is now dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, told The New York Times.
The stocks of heavy weapons would be enough to equip a brigade of about 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers and is about the same as the Pentagon kept in Kuwait after the 1990 invasion of Iraq.
But the proposal still has some way to go before it becomes a reality, and requires approval from Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and the White House.
