Pentagon reportedly to boost military presence in Europe

PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. officials say the Pentagon will be deploying an armored brigade combat team to Eastern Europe next February, the Associated Press reports.

The officials said the Army will announce Wednesday, March 30 that it will be sending a full set of equipment with the brigade to Europe. Earlier plans had called for the Pentagon to rotate troops into Europe, where they would have used a set of training equipment pre-positioned there.

The new proposal would remove the pre-positioned equipment, send it to be refurbished, and allow the U.S. forces to bring more robust, modern equipment in with them when they deploy. There are about 4,500 soldiers in an armored brigade, along with dozens of heavy vehicles, tanks and other equipment.

The announcement is also aimed at easing worries in Europe, where allies had heard rumblings about the pre-positioned equipment being removed and feared the U.S. was scaling back support.

Officials also said the Army would send additional communications equipment to Europe so that headquarters units could have the radios, computers and other equipment needed to work with the brigades.

The officials were not authorized to discuss the announcement publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity, the AP says.

Over the past nine months, during trips to Eastern Europe and in NATO meetings, Defense Secretary Ash Carter has pledged additional military support for the region.