"As part of the United States commitment to increased assurance and deterrence, US Army Europe (USAREUR) will begin receiving continuous troop rotations of US-based armored brigade combat teams (ABCT) to the European theater in February 2017, bringing the total Army presence in Europe up to three fully-manned Army brigades," the announcement said.
The escalation is intended to reassure Washington’s NATO and Eastern European allies "in the wake of an aggressive Russia," EU Commander General Phil Breedlove said.
The Army will begin storing additional prepositioned equipment — large quantities of combat equipment that can be rapidly deployed to provide additional combat power — in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, EUCOM said.
US troops will bring additional, modern equipment to replace current stocks and use in future military exercises with Operation Atlantic Resolve countries, the blog post added.
Operation Atlantic Resolve is the US military commitment to collective security with NATO and Eastern European countries against Russia, according to the US Department of Defense. The operation began in 2014 with Poland and the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and was expanded last February to include Romania and Bulgaria.
