The Army Brief: More soldiers to Europe; Ready to help in Poland; Tank deal; and more...
JENNIFER HLAD | FEBRUARY 25, 2022
ARMY EUROPE UKRAINE C4ISR
Welcome to The Army Brief, a weekly look at the news and ideas shaping the service’s future.
More deployments. About 7,000 U.S. troops will deploy to Europe in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, mostly from the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team and the 3rd Infantry Division, President Biden said Thursday. U.S. officials have repeatedly said that no U.S. troops will enter Ukraine to fight. Defense One reports.
At the ready. U.S. paratroopers are setting up facilities in Poland to help Americans fleeing Ukraine, and soldiers from the 82nd Airborne are ready to offer evacuation assistance. The State Department established a 24-hour “welcome center” for Americans in a Polish hotel, and has teams on the borders of Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Moldova as well. Read, here.
Built for it. An American spy plane that has spent 30 years flying missions from Desert Storm to Afghanistan is finally doing the job it was designed to do: tracking Russian forces as the invade eastern Europe, Defense One reports. The E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, or JSTARS, was created as a joint Army-Air Force program to give Army commanders real-time intel on what was happening on the ground.
Tanks for Poland. In a $6 billion sale, the U.S. will send Warsaw 250 M1A2 tanks, 250 counter-IED systems, 26 M88 combat recovery vehicles, 17 joint assault bridges, 276 M2 .50-caliber machine guns, and thousands of rounds of explosive tracers, Defense One reports. The tanks are “the most modern version of the Abrams and will provide Poland with a highly advanced…capability that will also strengthen our interoperability with the Polish armed forces,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said when announcing the deal in Warsaw.
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2022/02/the-army-brief-february-25-2022/362430/
