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Mass U.S. Army movements in Germany for exercise Defender 2020
[ArmyTimes] Over the next 20 days expect traffic and rail delays, with additional road and bridge damage to occur in Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and Poland due to mass US Army movementsSoldiers participating in the Army’s division-scale Defender 2020 exercise across Europe have started to trickle onto the continent, just as generals involved in the effort warn of logistical challenges to operating with the infrastructure there. Equipment belonging to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division rolled off ships into the port of Bremerhaven, Germany, on Feb. 20, as part of the opening salvo of the largest deployment of soldiers from mainland United States to Europe in a quarter century. About 20,000 troops in total will deploy from units in 15 states. But the massive influx of troops isn’t without complications, the general in charge of U.S. European Command and NATO told the Senate on Tuesday. “I’m concerned about the bandwidth to be able to accept this large force and I’m also concerned about road and rail from the center portion of Germany to the east — all the way to the eastern border,” said Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters, NATO’s supreme allied commander. Defender 2020 will bring more than 20,000 pieces of equipment to train on, according to the Army. Some units, like 2nd BCT, 3rd ID, are bringing their own gear, which includes armored vehicles. But 13,000 pieces of equipment will also be drawn from pre-positioned stocks on the continent in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. “The environment in Europe has to be mature enough to be able to absorb 20,000 soldiers and get those soldiers to the right pre-positioned locations to be able to grab the appropriate gear,” Wolters said. “What we want to do is count every second that it takes to get the soldier from the first point of entry all the way to his or her foxhole.” The European Union, NATO and U.S. European Command have been working to improve transit across the region, Wolters noted. The European Deterrence Initiative, for instance, has funded the placement of pre-positioned stocks throughout the theater, as well as improved infrastructure to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in investments since it was initiated in 2014. Posted by: Herb McCoy 2020-03-01 |
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