With more NATO allies, will the US store weapons in the northern highlands of Europe?

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — With Finland and Sweden officially joining NATO, the U.S. military is considering pre-positioning storage bases in Europe’s High North region, according to the deputy chief of Army Materiel Command.

“We’ve incorporated two new NATO allies. So what does that mean for the High North in particular, and what’s on the horizon for the High North? [Army pre-positioned stock] position? ” Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan told Defense News in a March 27 interview at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Forces Symposium here.

If strategy dictates such a move, Army Materiel Command would be responsible for placing military prepositioning inventories in the area. Mohan said that while the command contributes to the decision-making process, the Army team based at the Pentagon responsible for planning, operations and training is responsible for developing the Army’s prepositioning stockpile strategy for the region. ing.

Mohan said storing equipment and weapons in areas close to the Arctic Circle means how the frigid climate affects materials and what the military needs to do to winterize. He said that means the Army can learn more about the situation.

Regardless of whether the Army keeps stockpiles in Scandinavia, it continues to expand its pre-positioned stockpiles on the continent to division size.

According to fiscal year 2025 budget documents, the Army will spend $536 million to strengthen the division’s reserves, including two armored brigade combat teams, corps-level proponents that include fire, air defense, engineer, sustainment, and medical units. Plans to spend $.

Mohan said continued expansion will be carried out at existing Army pre-positioned stock locations to build division-level sets. He said the service will modernize its equipment as new capabilities become available, such as tube-firing guns. The Army also plans to consider other locations for expansion.

Some equipment sent to Ukraine, such as tube-fired cannons and rocket artillery, is being backfilled into the Army’s pre-positioned inventory when it comes off the production line, Mohan added.

The European-based stock has been undergoing rigorous training since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. Initially, the U.S. military moved heavy brigades from southern Germany to four locations in Poland and the Baltic region. Mohan said it will be used by the 3rd Infantry Division. The initiative included multiple virtual rehearsals, which helped streamline the process, he noted.

That capability has since returned to Germany, but the Army is permanently relocating the brigade’s entire equipment suite to a host-nation-funded and NATO-built base in Powicz, Poland. The base’s infrastructure was already critical. There is an airfield large enough to land a space shuttle, Mohan said.

However, for the U.S. Army’s pre-positioned stockpile, Poland will also build state-of-the-art facilities on site, upgrade rail lines and power infrastructure, and perform standard maintenance of the equipment, he said.

The military is currently preparing to issue pre-position shares for this year’s Defender Europe, a large-scale annual U.S. Army exercise in Europe.

The Army’s prepositioned stock has historically been designed to allow troops to quickly deploy in response to local conflicts, but the military began using the method to train more effectively in military exercises about five years ago. We adopted a new approach. We not only draw equipment, but also move it over difficult distances and across various boundaries.

“We want to focus [Army pre-positioned stock] “As much as we planned to use these stocks for great power conflict, we also planned to use them for great power competition,” Gen. Edward Daley, then head of Army Materiel Command, said in 2020. Ta. He explained: This meant that the Army would further exercise its pre-positioned inventory.