About 600 soldiers from the US Army’s 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division are to deploy to Poland and the Baltic States in October to help reassure the European allies of the United States who feel threatened by Russian military moves.
The brigade will be the next unit to take part in ongoing land forces exercises that fall under the umbrella of Operation Atlantic Resolve, Army Colonel Steven Warren said.
“These units will replace the paratroopers of US Army Europe’s 173rd Airborne Brigade ‘Sky Soldiers’,” Warren said, according to the US Defense Department. The ‘Sky Soldiers’ have since April been participating in multinational training in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
“These land training exercises, which came at the request of host nations, help foster interoperability through small-unit and leader training,” Warren added.
The new rotation will also be bringing in training equipment. According to Warren, the equipment includes “infantry fighting vehicles, cavalry fighting vehicles, armoured personnel carriers, M-1 tanks, engineering equipment and other equipment organic to US cavalry units.”
Estonia’s Defence Minister, Sven Mikser, has said that the rotation will exchange the light infantry company, currently stationed in Estonia, for a unit with much heavier armoury. He added that the company will probably be stationed at Tapa garrison.
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Cover photo: U.S. Army soldiers fire the 120mm main gun of an Army M1A2 Abrams tank during live-fire gunnery training at Fort Hood, Texas, on Sept. 24, 2013. The soldiers are assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division. DoD photo by Sgt. Kim Browne, U.S. Army.
