A U.S. Marine Corps unit equipped with tanks, light armored vehicles and artillery will be sent to Bulgaria this fall as part of American plans to help reassure NATO allies worried by Russia's involvement in Ukraine, a top commander said Thursday.
As part of the European Reassurance Initiative, about 155 Marines with the Black Sea Rotational Force will conduct six-month rotational deployments to Novo Selo Training Area, Bulgaria. The rotations will begin by early September and at least three are planned over an 18 month period.
Brig. Gen. Norman Cooling, deputy commander of Marine Corps Europe and Africa, said the Marines will be equipped with four Abrams main battle tanks, six light armored vehicles and three howitzers. He spoke as NATO defense ministers met Thursday in Brussels.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash 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.
The ultimate goal in introducing the combined arms company, like other measures sought by NATO and U.S. European Command, is to assure U.S. allies and protect their territorial integrity, said Capt. Richard Ulsh, a spokesman for Marine Corps Europe and Africa.
"With these tanks and artillery we will enhance the collective capability between the Marine Corps, our allies, and our international partners," Ulsh said. "... This further emphasizes the stance we've maintained all along and that is that we will face security crises together, but now we can do it with tanks and artillery."
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.
"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.
The U.S. already regularly conducts maneuvers with allied countries. In Romania on Thursday, U.S Navy Adm. Mark E. Ferguson III, a top NATO commander, said recent exercises have shown that the alliance is capable of training and operating across northern and Eastern Europe.
He also noted that NATO successfully relocated the Allied Joint Force Command temporarily from Italy to Romania for exercises this month involving 1,000 troops from 21 nations, as the alliance continues to hone its ability to react to Russia's moves in Ukraine or other security challenges.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
