US Troops on Alert; Carrier Strike Group Under NATO Command For ‘The First Time Since The Cold War’ Defense Secretary Gen. Lloyd Austin has put up to 8,500 U.S. troops on “heightened alert” as Russia continues to bolster its forces near Ukraine’s border, according to the Pentagon.
Meanwhile NATO said the U.S. has placed an aircraft carrier strike group under NATO command “for the first time since the Cold War.”
The Department of Defense says the naval exercises in the Mediterranean were “long planned” although NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg spoke about them on Monday in the context of allies “stepping up” in the face of the current Russian threat.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the U.S.-based troops were being prepared for potential deployment in Europe, if NATO takes the decision to activate its Response Force (NRF).
In order for a “vast majority” of the 8,500 troops who are now being placed on a “shortened tether” for possible deployment to Europe to actually be sent, Kirby told a briefing, NATO would have to activate the NRF.
He stressed that that has not yet happened, and that “no decisions have been made to deploy any forces from the United States as this time.”..........
