/View.info/ “Every morning when we wake up, we know what the threat is,” says Col. Ellis. “We are focused exclusively on the Russian threat.” New York Times newspaper report from the test site in Novo Selo.
Paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade during a night jump as part of Saber Guardian, a military exercise involving 25,000 U.S. and allied troops over the past month, which took place on the territory of three former Warsaw Pact countries – Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. Photo: Gordon Welters for The New York Times
NOVO SELO MILITARY RANGE, Bulgaria – After more than a decade spent fighting Islamic insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States military is trying to revive its Cold War-era skills to counter potential threats from Russia here in Eastern Europe – territory that was previously defended by the Soviet army.
Adapting to new threats is wide-ranging. Hundreds of battle tanks and armored fighting vehicles in desert camouflage livery are to be repainted dark green to blend in with the European landscape. Soldiers accustomed to operating from large, secure bases in Iraq and Afghanistan must now learn to use camouflage nets to conceal their positions and disperse in smaller groups to avoid sophisticated reconnaissance drones that could to direct missile attacks against military personnel or command posts.
American troops no longer have unrestricted air travel, nor priority land access, as they did in the river valleys of Iraq and the mountain ranges of Afghanistan. In today’s Europe, borders matter above all militarily. On a recent Friday, a U.S. Army supply convoy from Germany to Romania was held up at the Austrian border until the following Monday due to restrictions on military convoys during the busy summer holiday traffic.
American paratroopers at the landing zone during training in Bezmer, Bulgaria.. Photo: Gordon Welters for The New York Times
Last month’s 10-day exercise involving 25,000 US and allied troops, which took place across three former Warsaw Pact countries (Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria), saw a generation of top military commanders rehearse renewed tactics and strategies. which had previously been used to counter Soviet troops, tanks and artillery, including night air raids carried out by hundreds of paratroopers. The commanders are training young men who, since the September 11, 2011 attacks, have primarily faced terrorists in the Middle East and Southeast Asia using obscure tactics.
“We have to figure out how to adapt to this new environment,” said Col. Clare A. Gill, who graduated from West Point in 1994 and commands the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade from Fort Drum, N.Y., which operates Apache helicopters. ‘, ‘Black Hawk’ and ‘Chinnook’. “I don’t think we’ve achieved that yet.”
Commanders are expected to maintain the argument that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will continue to require thousands of US troops for the foreseeable future. But the US and its NATO allies recently completed the deployment of about 4,500 troops to the three Baltic states and Poland and are preparing to deploy several thousand armed units on the continent as a shield against Russian aggression.
These tensions are part of a growing race and concentration of military power between Washington and Moscow that evoke memories of the Cold War.
Moscow is massing troops along its western border with Europe for its own exercises and is also sending troops to Syria and eastern Ukraine, developing its nuclear arsenal and cyber-war power. American military experts see this as an attempt to prove Russia’s relevance after years of economic decline and restrictions. Russia has planned a major exercise in September that could involve up to 100,000 soldiers and other security personnel.
A Stryker fighter jet at Bezmer Air Base during training. Photo: Gordon Welters for The New York Times
In response, the Pentagon is also increasing training cycles and training on the territory of newer NATO allies to the east, such as at this base in Bulgaria. Allies are increasing the number of air, sea and underwater patrols from the Baltic to the Black Sea to counter a similar increase by Russian forces on NATO’s fringes.
The Russian military threat has changed significantly since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. President Vladimir V. Putin has made huge investments in modern infantry, tanks and artillery. Moscow has also increased its array of reconnaissance drones that can identify targets and coordinate strikes carried out by other weapons.
The so-called “Russian hybrid warfare” combines conventional military power with the ability to manipulate events through the mixed use of subversion, cyber attacks and information warfare. Earlier this year, for example, Lithuanian prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into false reports of rape by German soldiers stationed in Lithuania as part of NATO’s defense mission against Russia. Moscow has denied involvement in any disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting allied troops.
Lt. Gen. Frederick B. Hodges, who heads U.S. forces in Europe, dismissed the possibility of war between the West and Russia, but said Mr. Putin was likely to continue fueling efforts to unbalance Western armies and governments. “He’s going to stick around for a long time,” said Hodges, who will retire next month after a 37-year career in the Army. “He is immune to coups.”
American paratrooper applying camouflage paint to his face Photo: Gordon Welters for The New York Times
With that in mind, some of America’s top strategists and intelligence officers are keeping a close eye on Russian operations in Crimea, eastern Ukraine and Syria, which serve as testing grounds for new Russian tactics and weaponry. Young American military officers are again using flashcards or their digital equivalent to study the structure and capabilities of Russian military units, just as American officers did with the previous generation of Russian forces and weaponry in the 1970s and 1980s .
US military training centers in California, Louisiana, and Germany today use more scenarios that are an exact replica of Russian forces, although scenario developers both there and here are careful about naming opposition forces with fictitious names in order to avoid more further disturbing the diplomatic climate between Washington and Moscow.
The scale of the US military presence in Europe is much smaller than it was during the Cold War – 30,000 troops now compared to 300,000 then, says Genn. Hodges. For this reason, the general places great emphasis on “speed of concentration”—how quickly soldiers and their equipment will be able to move hundreds of miles and be instantly ready for battle.
The US$40 million Saber Guardian exercise, Europe’s largest this year, involved moving more than 1,000 troops and hundreds of vehicles about 2,000 kilometers across Europe – the equivalent of going from St Louis to Miami . Hundreds of Allied troops, including American soldiers in green and black camouflage, along with their 60-ton tanks, crossed the Danube River on makeshift bridges, repelling training attacks from the other side.
A Bulgarian Sukhoi Su-25, an aircraft designed by the Russians and exported to Warsaw Pact countries, during a live-fire exercise. Photo: Gordon Welters for The New York Times
For the armies in Eastern Europe, many of which still use Russian equipment, these exercises with American and Western European forces improve coordination and confidence, and are sure confirmation that allies support them.
“We gained confidence that we are not alone here on NATO’s eastern flank,” said Brigadier General Theo Toader, a Romanian air force officer who oversaw military exercises in Romania from a sprawling air base not far from Constanta on the Black Sea.
However, there was more than one obstacle, but these exercises are designed to uncover them. General Hodges, for example, more than once pointed out with irritation some of the delays his units encountered in crossing the continent. “We need to have more freedom of movement,” he says.
Some of the fastest-rising colonels, the next generation of U.S. Army generals, are facing the Russian threat for the first time but have spent the most significant years of their careers fighting al Qaeda or Daesh. Now they go back and close the circle.
Colonel Gill was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division after graduating from West Point when Russia was still considered a threat. After 9/11, however, Colonel Gill, one of the Black Hawk helicopter’s most accomplished pilots, spent most of his career in small, highly classified special operations units fighting Islamist insurgents. When he took command of the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade a year ago, he admits it took time to adjust to combat training in more conventional settings.
Colonel Gill, who currently commands 2,200 soldiers and more than 80 helicopters, says the main challenge is to maintain high combat readiness at a time when some troops are finishing recruitment and new ones are joining the brigade. About 40% of its part has been replaced by this model since October.
“We have to be ready to be anywhere, anytime,” said Col. Gill, 45, of Patton, Pennsylvania.
Col. Patrick Ellis studied Russian at West Point, where he was a classmate of Col. Gill. Then he believed he had to learn the language of his potential opponents. Since the 9/11 attacks, Col. Ellis has deployed to Afghanistan numerous times with specialized Army Rangers.
Col. Ellis, 45, the son of a Navy officer from Alameda, Calif., currently commands the Second Cavalry Regiment, about 4,800 soldiers and 330 combat vehicles. As his units moved from Germany to Bulgaria, they stopped periodically and talked to local residents, allowed children to board Stryker combat vehicles and explained to the residents why they were there.
“Every morning when we wake up, we know what the threat is,” says Col. Ellis. “We are focused exclusively on the Russian threat.”
Translation and Title “Voices”
The original title was: US soldiers conduct exercises in Eastern Europe that bring back memories of the Cold War
Source: nytimes.com
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