site.btaUS Marine Unit to be Sent to Bulgaria to Reassure Allies - International News Agencies

US Marine Unit to be
Sent to Bulgaria to Reassure Allies -
International News Agencies

Berlin, June 26 (BTA) - A U.S. Marine Corps unit equipped with
tanks, light armored vehicles and artillery will be sent to
Bulgaria this autumn as part of American plans to help reassure
NATO allies worried by Russia's involvement in Ukraine, Brig.
Gen. Norman Cooling, deputy commander of U.S. Marine Corps
Europe and Africa, said late on Thursday here, quoted by
international news agencies.

Gen. Cooling said that 155 Marines equipped with four Abrams
main battle tanks, six light armored vehicles and three
howitzers are scheduled to be in place at the Novo Selo training
 area by early September. He spoke as NATO defence ministers met
 Thursday in Brussels.

Cooling said in addition to being a deterrent, the Marine unit
would train with Bulgarian, Romanian and other allied forces
over the next 18 months to improve the ability for U.S. forces
to operate with forces using different equipment and methods.
Marines will move through in six-month rotations.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said this week that more
American military equipment would be positioned in Estonia,
Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Germany as NATO
 seeks to bolster its forces in Eastern Europe.

"It's certainly our intent to convince the Russians and
[President Vladimir] Putin to refrain from aggression and return
 to the community of peaceful nations," Cooling said, quoted by
the Associated Press.

"Ideally this culminates with integrated exercises with units
from more and more allied nations that are able to call for fire
 from one another's artillery, our tanks maneuver in support of
their infantry units, and vice versa," he said. SN /ZH/
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