U.S. And NATO Accelerate Military Build-Up In Black Sea Region
By Rick Rozoff
URL of this article:www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19259
Global Research, May 21, 2010 Stop NATO - 2010-05-20
In the post-Cold War era and especially since 2001 the Pentagon has
been steadily shifting emphasis, and moving troops and equipment,
from bases in Germany and Italy to Eastern Europe in its drive to
the east and the south.
That process was preceded and augmented by the absorption of former
Eastern Bloc nations into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
beginning in 1999. In one of the first nations in that category,
Poland, the initial contingent of what will be over 100 U.S. troops
arrived in the town of Morag this week, as near as 35 miles from
Russian territory, as part of a Status of Forces Agreement between
Washington and the host country ratified this February.
Also in February, the governments of the Black Sea nations of Romania
and Bulgaria confirmed plans for the U.S. to deploy a land-based
version of Standard Missile-3 anti-ballistic interceptors on their
territory.
The U.S. Sixth Fleet, headquartered in Italy, has deployed warships
to the Black Sea with an increased frequency over the past few
years, visiting and conducting joint drills with the navies of
Bulgaria, Romania and Georgia.
Last autumn it was revealed that the Pentagon planned to spend $110
million dollars to upgrade and modernize a base in Bulgaria and
another in Romania, two of seven such newly-acquired installations
in the two nations.
The air, naval and infantry bases in Bulgaria and Romania have been
employed for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and, although not
publicly acknowledged, doubtlessly for arming Georgia before, during
and since its five-day war with Russia in August of 2008.
The Pentagons Joint Task Force-East has all but officially been
assigned to the Mihail Kogalniceanu Airfield in Romania and also
makes regular use of the Romanian Armys Babadag Training Area and
the Novo Selo Training Range in Bulgaria, the latter near the
strategic Bezmer Air Base and the Black Sea port city of Burgas
(Bourgas).
Last year Joint Task Force-East conducted a series of military
trainings with Bulgarian and Romanian counterparts from August 7
to October 24. The immediate purpose of the combat drills was for
downrange operations in Afghanistan, but the lengthy and extensive
nature of the maneuvers demonstrated the longer-term and longer-range
intents of the U.S. and its NATO allies. The latter also have free
use of the Bulgarian and Romanian military bases.
Two squadrons from the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment were among the
2,000 American troops who participated in last years war games in
the two nations.
American Admiral James Stavridis, commander of U.S. European Command
and NATOs Supreme Allied Commander Europe, visited Romania on April
27 and 28, meeting with the countrys president and defense minister.
The main topics of discussion were NATOs new Strategic Concept and
its war in Afghanistan, but the issue of stationing U.S. interceptor
missiles was surely touched upon as well.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was in Romania on May
6 and 7 to meet with the president, defense minister, foreign
minister and top military commander. The U.S.-NATO missile shield
project and the war in Afghanistan were major subjects on the agenda.
Five days after Rasmussen left the capital the Romanian Foreign
Ministry announced that A round of technical US-Romanian talks on
Romanias inclusion in the Phased Adaptive Approach of the European
missile defense system took place in Bucharest a day earlier, May
11. [1]
The NATO chief arrived in neighboring Bulgaria on May 20 for similar
discussions. The local press announced in advance that The construction
of a common missile defense system and Bulgarias accession into it,
along with reforms in the Bulgarian army and NATOs new strategic
concept these will be some of the issues that NATO Secretary General
Anders Fogh Rasmussen is going to discuss with his Bulgarian partners
during his two-day visit to Sofia beginning on Thursday, May 20.
[2]
In fact, while in the Bulgarian capital Rasmussen met with the
nations prime minister, president and defense minister and, according
to a Bulgarian news source, the top issue discussed was the planned
installation of an anti-missile defence system in the region, as
Brussels plans to deploy anti-missile units in Bulgaria and
negotiations are set to be launched following the Portugal Nato
summit in November. [3]
Rasmussen reiterated the demand that all Balkans nations be
incorporated into NATO, which would dictate the inclusion of Bosnia,
Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo. (As NATO recognizes the
last-named as an independent state.)
The host nations foreign minister, Nikolay Mladenov, spoke after
the meeting with NATOs secretary general and linked the North
Atlantic blocs collective military assistance article with U.S.-led
missile deployments and anti-Russian energy transit projects. He
specifically highlighted setting up the anti-missile defence shield
as a part of Article 5 against new threats and the inclusion of
energy security to key security issues. [4]
On May 14 Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Admiral Giampaolo
Di Paola was in Romania to meet with Defense Minister Gabriel Oprea,
and the current stage of NATO-led military actions in Afghanistan
and Romanias participation in Alliance missions were the main
subjects of deliberation. Romanias defense minister said, Romanias
prompt response to the proposal to install missile shield elements
on its soil is a confirmation of the responsibility whereby Romania
approaches national, South-East European and Alliance security
issues. [5]
The nation, which lost another soldier to fighting in Afghanistan
this week, has recently confirmed plans to deploy 600 more troops
for the South Asian war, bringing the aggregate number to 1,800.
On May 17 the U.S.s Black Sea Rotational Force 2010 three-month
series of military exercises was launched at Romanias Mihail
Kogalniceanu Airfield.
Several days before more than 100 Marines from across the United
States put boots on the ground in Romania and stepped into history
as the first Security Cooperation Marine Air-Ground Task Force in
the Black Sea region.
The Marines were deployed to build partnerships with nations in the
Black Sea, Balkan and Caucasus regions... [6]
The Black Sea Rotational Force 2010 drills are being conducted in
eastern Romania in Constanta on the Black Sea and Tulcea, also on
the Black Sea and close to the border with Moldova, and include
over 300 troops from the U.S., the host country, Ukraine and
Macedonia.
The U.S. Marine Corps deployment is the first of its kind for United
States Marines to the Black Sea region. [7]
The commander of the Black Sea Rotational Force Security Cooperation
Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF), Lieutenant Colonel Tom Gordon,
spoke at the opening ceremony at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Airfield.
His comments included the following: Our mission over the next three
months will be to conduct multilateral security cooperation activities
with partner nations in the Black Sea, Balkan, and Caucasus regions
in order to enhance our collective professional military capacity,
promote regional stability, and build enduring relationships with
our partner nations. As a MAGTF we will simultaneously engage with
Romanian Land, Naval, Air, and Special Forces throughout our
deployment.
A Romanian officer present said, This is a great opportunity for
us to know the Marines. I expect my men to show they are prepared
to fight with America in Afghanistan. [8]
In advance of the maneuvers, the U.S. Marine Corps moved military
vehicles from a base in Norway, part of Marine Corps Prepositioning
Program Norway.
The Marine Corps and Norway have developed a unique relationship
for the storage and care of prepositioned equipment and supplies.
The method of storage to support the prepositioned assets for a
MAGTF is a series of six caves in the Trondheim region of central
Norway.
To illustrate both the range of military networks stretching from
old to new NATO states and where their ultimate downrange destinations
are located, a Marine website supplied additional details:
Norway relies on the Marines prepositioning program as a major
cornerstone of the nations internal defense plan. With deep-water
ports in close proximity to the storage caves, equipment can quickly
be loaded aboard available shipping for operations in threatened
parts of Europe, Africa or the Middle East. This capability was
demonstrated by the supplying of equipment and ammunition in support
of Operation Iraqi Freedom. [9]
U.S. Marines will be occupied working in the Black Sea, Balkan and
Caucasus regions to build enduring partnerships and build the
capacity of partner nations military forces until the end of July,
by which time NATOs largest military offensive of the nearly
nine-year-old Afghan war the assault on Kandahar province will
be underway.
Shortly before the above-described war games began, U.S. Air Force
personnel were deployed from the Ramstein Air Base in Germany to
Romania for Operation Carpathian Summer 2010, an air force medical
evacuation exercise. Held at Otopeni Airfield, near Bucharest,
Operation Carpathian Summer 2010 was designed to strengthen the
partnership between the U.S. and Romanian air forces, while elevating
their capability to work together.
Though this is not the first time American airmen have worked with
the Romanian air force, the 86th AES [Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron]
has never before joined in the training with their Romanian colleagues.
[10]
At the same time Romanian troops joined colleagues from the U.S.,
Britain, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland
and Slovakia at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels,
Germany to engage in joint military training with soldiers from the
Afghan National Army.
On May 19 the Stars and Stripes armed forces publication reported
that Rapid expansion of the Armys unmanned aircraft fleet has
prompted the service to begin offering initial training in Europe,
instead of sending troops to the U.S. to learn... Among the drones
that will be used for the training are the Extended-Range Multi-Purpose
MQ-1C Warrior, which can fly for more than 20 hours and launch
air-to-ground missiles, and the RQ-11 Raven small class unmanned
aerial vehicle used by the U.S. and NATO allies.
The news source added that a course next month at Grafenwohr Training
Area, will, for the first time, offer initial operator training on
the Raven UAS [Unmanned Aircraft System] in Europe.
The Army is looking at flying the Raven in Romania and possibly
Bulgaria, and attempting to open a range in Italy for the 173rd
Airborne Brigades unmanned aircraft. [11]
From April 12-16 a U.S. Air Force team at the Aviano Air Base in
Italy, in an effort to improve an already established military
relationship, provided aircraft maintenance training to the Bulgarian
and Romanian air forces. [12]
On May 18 200 U.S. airmen and ten F-15 multi-role strike fighters
spearheaded the launching of Operation Sentry Gold at the Graf
Ignatievo Air Base in Bulgaria. The exercise is designed to provide
the U.S. Air Force and Bulgarian air force the opportunity to learn
from each other and increase their respective NATO interoperability.
The American commander involved in the maneuvers emphasized that
the Bulgarian air force still uses Russian MiG-21s and MiG-29s,
saying: We simulate fighting MiGs all the time. Being here allows
us to really see them in action.
A Bulgarian officer said of the drills, Sentry Gold increases the
realism of our combat training. We get to see how a unit with a
tested and proven combat history does things, and added, Training
together with [U.S. Air Forces in Europe] and the U.S. pilots moves
us closer to NATO standards. [13]
As noted earlier, NATO chief Rasmussen arrived in the Bulgarian
capital on May 20. Five days earlier the nations defense minister,
Anyu Angelov, affirmed that We will file a request to join the
common European missile shield during NATO Secretary-General Anders
Fogh Rasmussens visit to Sofia... [14]
The Bulgarian defense chief also said that his ministry will allot
funds to upgrade the nations air defense system and that Brussels
has promised to co-finance the initiative, while NATO will allocate
US $7.5 million to complete the construction of the Graf Ignatievo
airbase. [15]
On the eastern shore of the Black Sea, senior Georgian military
officials met with the permanent representatives of all 28 NATO
member states at a sitting of the NATO-Georgia Commission (created
the month after Georgias war with Russia in 2008) on May 5. A week
later NATOs South Caucasus liaison officer Zbigniew Ribatski announced
that the military bloc will open a representatives office in Georgia
this summer.
On May 14 the Georgian press reported the launching of a U.S.-funded
military training simulation facility in the country: The Simulation
Training Center has been formed through the framework of US-Georgia
cooperation. The United States, under the ongoing collaboration,
donated the Center with the cutting-edge technical equipment and
developed special training programs for it. [16] The inauguration
was attended by new U.S. ambassador John Bass and NATO nations
military attaches.
Even Ukraine under its new president Viktor Yanukovich remains
within NATOs Black Sea plans. The prohibition against the presence
of foreign military forces for exercises in the nation, effected
by the former opposition against Yanukovichs pro-U.S. predecessor
Viktor Yushchenko, has been reversed, and U.S. and fellow NATO
states troops may resume Sea Breeze exercises on Ukraines Black Sea
coast.
The establishment of U.S. and NATO naval, air and infantry bases
and interceptor missile installations in Black Sea nations is the
prototype for expansive and permanent military build-ups in Eastern
Europe and into former Soviet space, which is being replicated in
the Baltic Sea region. An imaginary Iranian threat is the subterfuge
employed to justify the presence of U.S. and NATO warplanes, warships,
troops, mechanized and airborne units, missile batteries, training
centers and radar facilities in the Black Sea and Baltic Sea regions.
Iran does not border either of the two seas and has neither the
ability nor any reason to threaten nations that do.
Recent news reports from both sides of the Atlantic speak of a
warming of relations between Russia and the United States, between
Russia and NATO. If so, Russian political leaders wont have to
extend their hands far to clasp those of their alleged Western
friends and allies. They need merely reach across their southwestern
and northwestern borders on the Black and Baltic Seas.
Notes
1) HotNews.ro, May 12, 2010 2) Standart News, May 16, 2010 3) Sofia
Echo, May 20, 2010 4) Focus News Agency, May 20, 2010 5) The
Financiarul, May 14, 2010 6) Xinhua News Agency, May 13, 2010 7)
United States European Command, May 17, 2010 8) Ibid 9) Marines.mil,
May 12, 2010 10) U.S. European Command, May 14, 2010 11) Stars and
Stripes, May 19, 2010 12) U.S. Air Forces in Europe, April 20, 2010
13) U.S. Air Forces in Europe, May 18, 2010 14) Standart News, May
15, 2010 15) Ibid 16) Georgia Ministry of Defence, May 14, 2010
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Copyright Rick Rozoff, Stop NATO, 2010
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