The U.S. military should reassess its force posture in Europe and reduce its reliance on revolving door-style unit rotations, a major think tank’s analysts concluded in a Monday report.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies’ transnational threat team based their study on official documents, open-source materials and interviews with subject-matter experts.

The report’s authors recommend that the Army abandon the rotational armor brigade deployment model that “eats up … the Army’s force structure and long-term readiness.” Currently, two armor brigades are deployed to Europe. Instead, the report said, the service should permanently station an Armored Brigade Combat Team in Poland to replace one rotational unit and eliminate the remaining rotation altogether.

An Army Times investigation found that tank brigades and enlisted tank crew members were at higher risk of suicide than other soldiers in recent years, due in part to a decade of high operational tempo fueled by such non-combat deployments. The service once had armor brigades in Europe, but they were removed in the early 2010s.

Currently, the Army maintains a large presence of rotational forces in Europe. V Corps’ forward headquarters in Poznan, Poland oversees the three temporarily deployed brigade combat teams, which includes one light infantry brigade in addition to the two armor brigades. Other rotational forces include division headquarters, a combat aviation brigade, fires assets and sustainment units.

But the short-tour model has consequences, the report’s authors argued. They cost more money in the long-term compared to permanent bases, and they are less integrated into the continent’s culture and defense network. The deployment-based model negatively impacts soldiers, too — the authors said evidence suggests they “separate military personnel from their families,” causing “low morale” that can spawn “discipline issues and increased divorce rates.”

Army spokesperson Col. Roger Cabiness II told Army Times, however, that “forward basing of an ABCT is not a simple task.” Doing so would require diplomatic and legislative approvals both at home and abroad.

Despite efforts to reduce their operational tempo, the Army’s armor units continue to deploy at a high rate to fulfill the Europe requirements. The 4th Infantry Division’s 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team cased its colors Monday, signifying its departure for an eight- or nine-month Europe rotation. The Iron Brigade’s new mission is beginning roughly 16 months after returning to Fort Carson, Colorado from another Europe deployment that wrapped in December 2022.

The report’s authors also recommended that the Air Force station an additional F-16 squadron in Germany; increase anti-submarine warfare capability and air defense forces; bolster stockpiles of prepositioned equipment and ammunition; and continue modernization, cyber, space and security cooperation efforts.

Source: Army Times

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The speaker emphasized that the MiG-31K is the carrier of the Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.

“Military intelligence has repeatedly recorded during training flights of the MiG-31K on the territory of Belarus the development of missile launch issues not only on the territory of Ukraine, but also on the territory of Poland, Germany,” said the Deputy Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

According to the speaker, this is one of the elements of blackmail and pressure on the international community to limit or even stop supporting Ukraine.

Source : zerkalo.io

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The day before, Polish President Andrzej Duda held urgent consultations with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki , representatives of the country’s military leadership and NATO allies. In particular, he had a conversation with his French colleague Emmanuel Macron.

“The course of events on the other side of our eastern border is under constant surveillance,”

 Duda said.

Today, June 25, in Warsaw they began to “digest” the de-escalation in Russia, although a day earlier they made far-reaching plans there, up to the need to take advantage of the opportunity and “pounce with all their might” on the Russian army in Ukraine.

Now the emphasis is on the fact that the Kremlin emerged from the conflict “weakened”. Although there are those who do not advise rushing to conclusions and say that the situation is not so clear.

For example, the former head of the Foreign Ministry, and now a Polish member of the European Parliament, Radoslaw Sikorsky , said in an interview with the BBC that Vladimir Putin was both “weak and strong” after the rebellion of Yevgeny Prigozhin .

According to him, the Russian leader will now “probably purge those whom he considered wavering,” meaning that his rule will become “more authoritarian and tougher at the same time.”

Earlier this Sunday, CNN, citing U.S. intelligence officials “familiar with the matter,” said Prigozhin “has been planning to seriously challenge the Russian military leadership for quite some time.” At the same time, according to the interlocutors of the American TV channel, “it was not clear what the ultimate goal would be.”

Source : edaily

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WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s government said Saturday that it has decided to temporarily prohibit grain and other food imports from Ukraine as it seeks to soothe the rising anger of Polish farmers, who say they are losing huge amounts of money to a glut of Ukrainian grain on the market.

Ruling party leader Jarosław Kaczyński said at a party convention in eastern Poland that the Polish countryside is facing a “moment of crisis,” and that while Poland supports Ukraine, it was forced to act to protect its farmers.

“Today, the government has decided on a regulation that prohibits the importation of grain, but also dozens of other types of food, to Poland,” Kaczyński said.

The government announced that the ban on imports would last until June 30. The regulation also includes a prohibition on imports of sugar, eggs, meat, milk and other dairy products and fruits and vegetables.

Farmers in neighboring countries have also complained about Ukrainian grain flooding their countries and creating a glut that has caused prices to fall — and causing them to take steep losses.

“The increasing imports of agricultural products from Ukraine cause serious disturbances in the markets of our countries, great damage to producers and social unrest,” the Polish agriculture minister, Robert Telus, told his counterparts from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary this week. All are members of the European Union and he said the bloc should take urgent action on the matter.

“We cannot accept a situation where the entire burden of dealing with increased imports rests mainly with farmers from our countries,” Telus said.

The situation is the result of Russia’s war against Ukraine. After Russia blocked traditional export sea passages, the European Union lifted duties on Ukrainian grain to facilitate its transport to Africa and the Middle East.

Grain has since flowed into Poland but much of its has not transited further on to the Middle East and Northern Africa, as it was meant to under the EU plan.

Poland’s government has sought to blame the EU for the situation. But some unions and opposition politicians accuse government-linked companies of causing the problem by buying up cheap, low-quality Ukrainian grain, and then selling it to bread and pasta plants as high-quality Polish produce.

Tomasz Obszański, of the farmers’ Solidarity union, said that about 3 million tons of grain intended for Africa were received by traders once the grain arrived in Poland, and he alleged that some companies have made huge money off the situation.

The leader of the protesting farmers and head of the AgroUnia group, Michał Kołodziejczak, estimated farmers’ losses at up to 10 billion zlotys ($2.3 billion).

The rising anger of the farmers comes ahead of an election in the fall and is a headache for the ruling conservative Law and Justice party as it seeks a third term. Polls show that it is the most popular party in the country but could fall short of a majority in the next parliament.

It faces a particular challenge from a far-right party, Confederation, which combines libertarian and nationalist views and which contains some members seen as sympathetic to Russia. The party has grown to be the third-most popular party in some polls.

Kaczyński on Saturday also announced other measures meant to help farmers, including maintaining subsidies on fertilizer.

Source: Yahoo! News

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