The Defender Europe 20 military exercise has been designed to build strategic military readiness and is not conducted in response to any particular country, including Russia, US Brig. Gen. Sean Bernabe said during a press briefing on Monday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th December, 2019) The Defender Europe 20 military exercise has been designed to build strategic military readiness and is not conducted in response to any particular country, including Russia, US Brig. Gen. Sean Bernabe said during a press briefing on Monday."Defender Europe 20 is not a response in particular [against other countries]," Bernabe said when asked whether any part of the military exercise is directed against Russia. "Overall, the main focus is to build strategic readiness to practice moving large forces from the United States to Europe and then to practice moving these forces across Europe to training areas and give them a chance to build interoperability with NATO allies and partners."
The military exercise is scheduled to take place during the months of April and May across ten countries. Eighteen nations will participate in the drills and the United States will participate with 20,000 soldiers.
Bernabe noted that Defender Europe 20 is the biggest deployment of US military forces in Europe in 25 years, but emphasized that the US troops and equipment will return to the United States after completing the drills.
Most of the US troops participating in Defender Europe 20 will be moved to Europe by air while most part of the equipment will arrive by sea, Bernabe said.
The movement of troops and equipment will begin in February, Bernabe added.
