A US Army Europe unit,the 2nd Cavalry Regiment,which was deployed to the Baltic States when Russia invaded Crimea,has requested new,more powerful cannons for 81 of its Stryker infantry fighting vehicles.The Regiment wants 30 mm cannons to replace their current 12.7 mm armament-more than doubling their combat power.The US Army approved the request last Wednesday and the House Armed Services Committee is setting money aside for the upgrade as well,the Breaking Defense website learned from a memo.
The Regiment is concerned about countering the Russian BMP-3 amphibious infantry combat vehicle,which also has a 30 mm autocannon 2A72;a 100 mm gun/launcher that can fire anti-tank guided missiles;plus 3 7.62 mm PKT machine guns.*
Last Thursday,NATO accused Russia of mounting a buildup on the border with Ukraine that could facilitate a Blitzkrieg attack by Russian-backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine.More than 1,000 pieces of Russian military equipment,including tanks,artillery and air defence units have been massed on the border over the past month,NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg complained.What is more,Russia is stepping up the shipment of supplies to the separatist forces and providing advanced training and drones to them.The US State Department added that Russia has deployed air defence systems in Eastern Ukraine and that joint Russian-separatist forces are maintaining artillery and rocket launchers in violation of the current ceasefire arrangements.*
Russia is angered by US paratroopers from the 173d Airborne Brigade being on a six-month deployment to Western Ukraine for a training mission with six Ukrainian National Guard units,charging that they are in fact in Eastern Ukraine.*
The US currently has no permanently based tank forces in Europe,so the forward-deployed Stryker would have an even more critical role in the event of a crisis.General Dynamics manufactures the Stryker line of IFVs.*
General Dynamics (GD)
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