Marines to add armor, artillery to Black Sea force

NAPLES, Italy — The Marine Corps is preparing to deploy a company-size unit equipped with tanks, armored vehicles and artillery to Bulgaria, an expansion of its Black Sea footprint meant to reassure allies and add new crisis-response options.

The first rotation of the Combined Arms Company will bring 150 Marines to the Novo Selo Training Area, Bulgaria, in September. Accompanying the unit will be four Abrams tanks, six Light Armored Vehicles and three howitzers, said Brig. Gen. Norm Cooling, deputy commander of Marine Forces Europe-Africa.

Current plans call for three consecutive six-month rotations, Cooling said, though the presence could be extended with additional funding.

The new unit will incorporate armor and heavy weapons into training the Marines already conduct with local armed forces around the Black Sea. It provides an armor element to the Marines’ crisis-response force in Moron, Spain, Cooling said.

“It will give us the opportunity to train with our NATO allies in ways we have not been able to do so far because we have not had armor,” he said.

The move is part of the broader American effort to support eastern European allies unnerved by Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula last year, its continued support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and Moscow’s growing assertiveness at sea and in air.

The unit’s deployment resembles the Army push to pre-position heavy weaponry at sites in six east European countries. Those plans call for the placement of 250 Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and artillery in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and the three Baltic nations.

The Marine company will be attached to a battalion-size Marine unit at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base in Romania. That unit, of about 550 Marines, includes the Black Sea Rotational Force that currently trains with regional militaries.

Marines rotating to the new Combined Arms Company will come from II Marine Expeditionary Force, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. Funding comes through the European Reassurance Initiative, a roughly $1 billion account aimed at bulking up U.S. presence and exercises in Europe.

The company’s first task will be moving its vehicles and equipment from port in Bremerhaven, Germany, down the Continent to Bulgaria — no small logistical feat, according to Cooling.

“Anytime you’re taking forces from the United States and moving them to Europe, especially heavy forces, that is an event in of itself,” he said. “That is a training objective.”

Marine leaders have established several rotational ground-based units in Europe and the Middle East in recent years, each tailored to training or crisis response. The larger units, known as air-ground task forces, incorporate aircraft like the Harrier jet and MV-22 Osprey, as well as artillery and rifle companies.

The Corps prefers operating from U.S. Navy amphibious warships. But a high demand for those vessels, a lack of new shipbuilding in recent years and concerns over crisis hot spots in regions like North Africa has Marine leaders considering other options.

Those options include the use of tanker-style cargo ships for small Marine detachments and even the warships of several allied nations.

Forward posture enables 140 ton joint airlift - 6/25/2015 - RAMSTEIN, Germany -- U.S. Airmen and Soldiers worked together here to transport two M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks to the Novo Selo Training area in Bulgaria, June 20 and 22. The joint team moved the two 70-ton tanks within 15 minutes into the back of a C-17 Globemaster III to aid in the multinational, U.S. Army Europe-led "Speed and Power" exercise which is a part of the overarching Operation Atlantic Resolve.
"I was amazed because I've never seen 70 tons fly," said U.S. Army 1st Lt. Frank Wood, 3rd Infantry Division's 3rd Combined Arms Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment from Fort Stewart, Georgia. "It's a great honor to be a part of a mission like this because it is the first time an American tank has ever shot in Bulgaria. Being able to prove that we can take these 70-ton 'monsters' and move them from Germany to Bulgaria so quickly shows our adversaries that we can rapidly move large weaponry as well as highlight U.S. and NATO capabilities."
This movement is the first time these tanks have been transported since 2003, when Ramstein Airmen aided in sending approximately 28 tanks in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Not only is this mission historically significant but also one which will be remembered by all the Airmen that made this movement happen. The strategic access that has been established throughout U.S. European Command provides unsurpassed capability in a strategically vital forward location.
"It is great to be a part of this mission and to be here supporting the NATO efforts in Bulgaria," said Capt. Cohan Lammerding, 4th Airlift Squadron aircraft commander, from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. "This will actually be my first mission as an aircraft commander, so I am especially excited for this."
The tanks will serve in Bulgaria to improve U.S. and Bulgarian soldiers' knowledge and train them on operability. This training event will also give them a chance to train in a live-fire environment to get a glimpse of what it would be like to take these tanks into battle. Moving these tanks quickly and efficiently is just one example of Ramstein's ability to offer forward-based, worldwide airlift capabilities at a moment's notice.

Baseball movie "Comrades of Summer" was wrong. Russians are not misguided people wanting freedom. They are horrible people wanting everyone to bow to their shit-emperor.

Reagan won. Over hundred million people are freed from Kremlin slavery. People saying to give up now and reverse the situation are the enemies of freedom!

I add a picture first posted by ansel12.

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