On February 2, troops from the 1st Battalion of the 8th Cavalry Regiment and the 3rd Battalion of the 16th Field Artillery Regiment started their rotation in Lithuania, according to an Armed Forces press release. “It will be the first reinforced American rotation since the US decision last autumn to ensure a persistent US rotational presence in Lithuania,” the military said. The American troops arrived in Lithuania for the nine-month deployment from their home base in Fort Hood, Texas.
The new rotation brings along M1A2 Abrams tanks, Bradley IFVs, M1068A3 armoured personnel carriers, trucks, and other military equipment. While in Lithuania, the US troops will regularly take part in exercises, thus increasing interoperability between the allied armed forces, according to the press release.
Last December, Washington’s embassy in Vilnius said that the US would further step up its military presence in the Baltic countries and change the status of American forces in Lithuania to “a persistent rotational presence”. For the past few years, the US battalion has been deployed at the Pabradė training area with longer or shorter breaks between rotations.
A company-size unit of around 150 US troops was stationed in Lithuania on a rotational basis in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. After company rotations ended three years later, the US has been deploying battalions more regularly to Lithuania since 2019.
