Posted on 06/18/2022 11:12:22 AM PDT by Mariner
The Army keeps battalions’ worth of armored equipment stored in countries like Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, as it has since the Cold War era.
Now that it has come out of storage for the first time ever ― to support 3rd Infantry Division troops deployed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ― the Defense Department’s inspector general wants a report on how it’s being maintained and accounted for.
As part of an evaluation set to begin in June, the IG will meet with representatives from U.S. European Command and U.S. Army Europe and Africa to get a better idea of processes for keeping the equipment in service and plans for repairing and possibly replacing it as it gets used in support of NATO.
The review comes as the war in Ukraine barrels toward its fourth month, with more than 10,000 U.S. troops deployed across eastern and central Europe. While the discussion of increasing the number of troops permanently based in Europe ― around 80,000 ― has been in the air for years, the war in Ukraine has thrown into stark relief the need for both the U.S. and NATO countries to rethink where forces are based.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
The US should notify NATO that we'll be out in 5 years, no matter what.
Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers in April that he favored a compromise in which troop housing and facilities could be built to support rotational forces, but not the type of setup that would include bringing families.
“My advice would be to create permanent bases, but don’t permanently station,” he told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. “So you get the effect of permanence by rotational forces cycling through permanent bases.”
I suspect it will be Russia telling us to get out...in exchange for keeping Europe from freezing to death.
so Obama didn’t sell it
That would be a good way to do it, if we had a good reason for being there.
The REFORGER equipment.
Before the Crimea annexation, though, the Army’s main prepositioning location was at Camp Darby in Livorno, Italy. The Middle East and the Indo-Pacific each had two major prepositioning sites, by comparison, in addition to floating stocks on Navy logistics ships. Since 2014, three new Army prepositioning sites have opened in Europe: Eygelshoven, Netherlands, which opened in 2016 and features eight climate-controlled warehouses and 50,000 square feet of additional storage; Dülmen, Germany, which opened in 2017 and features seven warehouses’ worth of war stocks; and Zutendaal, Belgium, which also opened in 2017, adding 15 more climate-controlled warehouses and 40,000 square feet of hardstand storage space. A fourth new site, in Powidz, Poland, is NATO-funded. It includes 650,000 square feet of climate-controlled warehouse space, a vehicle maintenance facility and a munitions storage area covering 58,000 square feet. It’s set to open later this year.
As it made massive storage capacity additions, the Army also experimented with what it could do with its prepositioned gear. One of the primary objectives of the inaugural Defender-Europe exercise was to demonstrate how APS-2 gear could be drawn, issued to troops, used and returned in a combat-like situation. In December 2021, the Army’s 21st Theater Sustainment Command pulled gear out of the APS sites in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands and transported it several hundred miles to Leghorn Army Depot, Italy in a complex logistics drill. In all, 700 pieces of rolling stock and equipment – enough to equip a light infantry battalion and base support battalion – were mounted on trucks and transported south.
The urgency of the IG looking at the maintenance of the pre-positioned equipment has likely been greatly increased due to the relatively recent revelations about the state of Russia’s reserve war stocks. Russian corruption and negligence in the long term maintenance of the equipment and the resultant uselessness of a lot of the equipment without major rebuilds was quite a surprise to the west. It may not have been a great surprise to the Russians but I think they were hoping to win the war quickly so they would not have to touch those stocks. (If you don’t have to touch the stocks there is no need to look closely at how they are being stored and maintained. But they did, to great embarrassment.) Now the IG wants to make sure that we do not have a similar problem.
I loved that show
.
Bring it home from Europe. All of it.
Bring home our troops form there as well.
The time has come for the USA to stop propping up the Euro-pinkos.
Don’t know what the economic impact of such a move would be
but for sure there would workers galore looking for jobs would
be my guess. Huge cost to move all that equipment also. I guess
it could be sold to Europe Nations for a dollar or two.
Don’t know what the economic impact of such a move would be
but for sure there would workers galore looking for jobs would
be my guess. Huge cost to move all that equipment also. I guess
it could be sold to Europe Nations for a dollar or two.
Crap!
The US should withdraw those 80,000 troops back to the southern U.S. border immediately...
Why should we keep our troops in Europe to protect moslem nations?
Damn double posting. One is enough
During the Cold War, NATO sponsored exercises that included an annual exercise called REFORGER (Return of Forces to Germany). A selected portion of the prepositioned equipment was issued to support this exercise. When the exercise ended, the equipment was turned in and inspected, repaired and returned to storage. If you don’t do this, most inspection and repair will be done with paper and pencil. Who will ever know?
I was an augmentee during REFORGER 77. It was good experience for me, a month as a Chaparral Platoon Leader. My battalion was air base defense for Hahn, Bitburg, and Spangdahlem. Had a great time, Platoon Sergeant was top notch. I knew it was his platoon, though he was glad he was able to do his real job.
“Army equipment stored in Europe being looked at by inspector general”
Sounds like they’re having to comb through the junkyards there.
“I was an augmentee during REFORGER 77.”
I was a regularly-assigned platoon leader in a Field Artillery missile unit (LANCE) for REFORGER 78. One of our toughest coordination issues was going to a previously-surveyed firing position to find an ADA radar unit set up on the same position. Always wondered if they took that little bit of learning up the chain to determine how to de-conflict units needing the same resource.
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