WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US Army has shipped tanks directly to Poland for the first time with the rotation of an armored brigade, to gauge the ability of the nation’s Gdansk port’s ability to handle large military shipments, the Department of Defense announced in a press release on Friday.
"This is the first replacement of troops as part of continuing 'heel-to-toe' rotations to maintain a US armored brigade in Europe, as well as the first time tanks have arrived directly in Poland by sea," the release stated.
Commander of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command Maj. Gen. Steven Shapiro said that using Gdansk helps test the Army's capacity, the capacity of the port, and to make sure that the Army knows how to operate inside of Poland.
Earlier this week, US troops and military equipment arrived in the city of Gdansk for the deployment in eastern Europe as part of the Operation Atlantic Resolve, which was launched to boost NATO's military presence in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland following the eruption of the Ukrainian crisis in 2014 with the Western countries using alleged Russian interference in Ukrainian affairs as a pretext.
