A battalion of the new armored brigade that the US will send to Eastern Europe in early 2017 will be stationed in Romania, according to official sources quoted by local Hotnews.ro.

Up to 1,000 US troops and military equipment, including Bradley fighting vehicles and Abrams tanks, will be deployed at the Mihail Kogalniceanu military base in eastern Romania. The soldiers stationed in Romania will be rotated every nine months.

The US already has some 600 soldiers stationed at the Romanian base, who have been involved in an increasing number of joint military exercises with Romanian and NATO troops in recent years.

US and NATO also inaugurated the missile defense system at the Deveselu military base in southern Romania, in May. The military base at Deveselu is also under US command.

The troops that the US sends to Romania are part of the bilateral agreements between the two countries are not connected to the multinational brigade that NATO plans to station in Romania.

editor@romania-insider.com