US Sending Troops to Baltics for Training Exercises as Plans for Ukraine Put on Hold
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U.S. Army photo by 2nd Lt. Ryan Huggins(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon announced Monday that the 3,000-man 1st Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division is going to deploy this month to the Baltics for the long-term training programs developed in the wake of Russia’s push into Crimea last year.
The brigade is being sent as part of the ongoing rotation of American troops to NATO countries in Eastern Europe for long-term training and exercises.
Formally known as Operation Atlantic Resolve, the training program was developed in the wake of the Russian push into Crimea and the separatist fight in eastern Ukraine.
Under Operation Atlantic Resolve, the U.S. has sent in Army and Air Force units to the Baltics and Poland, and the Navy has sent ships more frequently into the Black Sea.
The 1st brigade 3rd Infantry Division will replace the 550 soldiers of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment that have been conducting training in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland since January.
The first elements of the 3rd Infantry Division will arrive in the Baltics over the next month for their own three-month rotation. However, this brigade will be the largest unit to rotate in since they began. Initially there were 600 soldiers from the 173rd Airborne who served in the spring and summer of 2013, and were replaced by 800 soldiers of the 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division.
Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters earlier Monday that the first of the unit’s 750 pieces of equipment including Abrams Tanks, Bradleys, helicopters, and other vehicles began arriving in Riga, Latvia.
Most of the equipment is going to remain in the region so that as units rotate in they will use the gear left behind for them.
The news of the troop deployment comes as a hold has been placed on the long-scheduled U.S. training of Ukraine’s new National Guard that was supposed to take place later this month.
Plans called for as many as 600 U.S. troops from the 173rd Airborne Regiment to conduct the training at a Ukrainian training facility in far western Ukraine.
A Pentagon spokesman said on Monday the interagency is currently reviewing whether the exercise should take place given the current situation in eastern Ukraine, while a U.S. official said it’s been put on hold.
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