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For the first time since the Cold War, the Navy is practicing to lead a convoy across the Atlantic
[Business Insider] The Defender-Europe 2020 exercise will be the largest deployment of US-based forces to Europe in 25 years, with some 20,000 soldiers deploying from the US to join another 17,000 troops from 17 other countries.The exercise will take place in April and May, and to get some of those soldiers and their gear to Europe, the US Military Sealift Command cargo ship USNS Benavidez, US-flagged merchant vehicle carriers MV Resolve and MV Patriot, are already sailing across the Atlantic, escorted by guided-missile cruiser USS Vella Gulf. Convoys are nothing new for the Navy, but it's something the service hasn't focused on since World War II. Now, as the US military reorients toward a potential clash with another sophisticated enemy, it's flexing that muscle again. "We obviously would practice this a lot in World War II. After that, not so much, but we still did practice it," Cmdr. Troy Denison, director of current operations for US 2nd Fleet, told reporters on a phone call Friday. "But the last one we did was in 1986, so this is really the first time in quite a while that we've conducted a convoy operation." Posted by: Besoeker 2020-03-01 |
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