insider@insider.com (Christopher Woody) Business InsiderMarch 4, 2020, 11:39 AM CST
US Navy/MCS 3rd Class Jordan R. Bair
The US military is shipping 20,000 troops and their gear across the Atlantic for Defender-Europe 20, which will see the largest deployment of US-based forces to Europe since the 1990s.
Getting those forces to Europe and then getting them around Europe will be the biggest test yet for logistical muscles that the US and NATO let wane after the Cold War.
US Military Sealift Command cargo ship USNS Benavidez and US-flagged merchant vessels MV Resolve and MV Patriot set off across the Atlantic for Europe last month, escorted by guided-missile cruiser USS Vella Gulf through a path made by the Eisenhower carrier strike group.
US Navy Lt. Stephanie Mantz aboard USNS Benavidez, watches guided-missile cruiser USS Vella Gulf, front, and MV Resolve, center, during a convoy in the Atlantic in support of Defender-Europe 20, February 28, 2020.
USNS Benavidez in the Atlantic, February 26, 2020.A M1 Abrams tank was the first piece of combat power to roll into Europe for Defender-Europe 20, in Bremerhaven, Germany, February, 20, 2020.
Tracked vehicles are unloaded from US vessel ARC Endurance at Bremerhaven, Germany on February 21, 2020.US Army troop carrier vehicles are put on railcars during an Army Prepositioned Stock movement, the first in support of Defender-Europe 20, at Coleman Barracks in Mannheim, Germany, January 28, 2019.
US Army Reserve soldiers check vehicles at Fallingbostel, 30 miles outside of Bergen-Hohne, Germany, for Defender-Europe 20, February 8, 2020.
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