US Army will build equipment caches in Estonia by end of 2016
The US Army will build equipment caches for its vehicles and heavy artillery in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. The construction work will be completed by the end of next year, the US Army commander in Europe, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, said on Wednesday.
The maintenance sites for what the US Army is calling European Activity Sets are built in response to Russia's continuing incursion into Ukraine.
When the US Army brigades currently based in Europe complete their rotation, their equipment will stay behind in the new facilities for the next arriving unit to use, Defense News reported.
Activity sets are separate sets of equipment outside of prepositioned stocks that are placed around the world to support regionally aligned forces and tailored to meet combatant commanders' needs in specific regions.
According to Hodges, the equipment for the heavy brigade combat team in Europe now consists of about 1,300 vehicles, including tanks, Bradleys and Paladin Howitzers.
Editor: M. Oll