Stars and Stripes
June 20, 2015
Air Force, Army team up to move tanks for Bulgaria exercise
By Matt Millham
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany: The U.S. military loaded the first of two Abrams tanks onto a C-17 transport plane Saturday morning for a live-fire demonstration in Bulgaria.
Next week’s “Speed and Power” exercise at Bulgaria’s Novo Selo Training Area is meant to reassure NATO allies and demonstrate the U.S. military’s ability to rapidly deploy materiel around Europe. It’s only expected to last just a few days, but it is one of a raft of events the U.S. and its NATO allies have added to their schedule in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
“The point of all this is to show not only our NATO allies the power of the M1A2, but to also show our adversaries that we have the power and coordination to quickly and rapidly move M1A2s to various countries throughout Europe,” said 1st Lt. Frank Wood, who is leading the two-tank formation from 3rd Infantry Division’s 3rd Combined Arms Battalion, 69th Armored Regiment out of Fort Stewart, Ga.
It is the first time the U.S. military has airlifted M1A2 Abrams tanks within Europe, according to U.S. Army Europe. The Army hasn’t shipped tanks by air since 2003, Wood said.
The U.S. has also never fired a tank in Bulgaria before, he said. “So that will be the big, climactic part of this.”
The tanks are part of USAREUR’s “European Activity Set,” a collection of armor and other equipment staged in Europe for contingency operations. The EAS is being expanded from a heavy battalion to a heavy brigade’s worth of equipment.
Much of that expansion is coming from the 3rd Infantry Division. About 120 pieces of their equipment that arrived in Europe in March will be left behind.
In Europe for three months already, the soldiers of 3-69 worked with Bulgarian troops at the U.S. training center in Hohenfels, Germany, prior to shipping out to the Black Sea country.
“They definitely loved our tanks,” Woods said.
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