US gunnery drill could open way for large exercises in Macedonia

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • Tomche Makedonche
    Senior Member
    • Oct 2011
    • 1123

    US gunnery drill could open way for large exercises in Macedonia



    US gunnery drill could open way for large exercises in Macedonia

    About 200 soldiers from the U.S. peacekeeping force in Kosovo are firing rifles, grenade launchers and missiles on the move for 20 days in Macedonia as a test run for much bigger exercises.

    The sprawling Krivolak training area south of the Macedonian capital of Skopje is giving soldiers from 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment a chance to sharpen their weapon skills during maneuvers that include firing anti-tank missiles from moving Humvees.

    A dozen National Guard troops from the 126th Aviation Regiment in Massachusetts also are taking part, with Black Hawk door gunners strafing ground targets with their .50-caliber machine guns.

    The drills, which finish Aug. 20, aim to demonstrate that the site is suitable for larger exercises, such as one planned next year that will have about 1,000 soldiers from the U.S. and Macedonia, military officials said.

    This roughly 200-square-mile site offers similar training capabilities as Grafenwoehr, Germany, but is within a three-hour drive of Kosovo, which has no place for soldiers to do weapons training at this level, officials said

    “It builds confidence, which really maximizes our lethality if we were to go against a near-peer threat,” said Lt. Col. Donald Braman, 61st Cavalry commander.

    Soldiers from the Fort Carson, Colo.-based regiment are part of the 600 troops that make up the U.S. portion of NATO’s peacekeeping force in Kosovo. The nation of 2 million people declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state and tensions between the Serbian minority and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians remain high.

    The training area’s proximity to Kosovo would permit troops to return quickly to their posts if an emergency arose, said Col. Nick Ducich, commander of the Multi-National Battle Group in charge of security in eastern Kosovo.

    When the Macedonian training site is fully restored, it could accommodate a mechanized brigade of several thousand soldiers, Ducich said.

    Built 70 years ago, the training site was used by the Yugoslavian military for high-caliber weapon training and aerial assault drills, making it perfect for large allied exercises, said Patrick Enriquez, deputy chief for the Office of Defense Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy in Skopje.

    “The U.S. Army is always looking for places to train,” Enriquez said. “We’ve been marketing Krivolak as an alternative, if not a solution.”

    Last month, NATO’s 29 heads of state formally invited Macedonia to begin talks to join the Western alliance, following a landmark deal with Greece over the former Yugoslav republic’s name. Greece, which maintains that the name Macedonia relates to a Greek region and not the country, had been blocking Macedonia’s accession to NATO and the European Union for the past two decades.

    Macedonia will change its name to North Macedonia if the change passes through parliament and a voter referendum scheduled in September.
    “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you’ve got to make it stop, and you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all” - Mario Savio
  • Phoenix
    Senior Member
    • Dec 2008
    • 4671

    #2
    Originally posted by Tomche Makedonche View Post
    https://www.stripes.com/news/us-gunn...donia-1.541949

    US gunnery drill could open way for large exercises in Macedonia


    “The U.S. Army is always looking for places to train,” Enriquez said. “We’ve been marketing Krivolak as an alternative, if not a solution.”
    Fuck-off..................go train in the mojave desert you motherfuckers.

    Comment

    • Karposh
      Member
      • Aug 2015
      • 863

      #3
      Originally posted by Phoenix View Post
      Fuck-off..................go train in the mojave desert you motherfuckers.
      A good puppet state should always leave their important national resources at their master's disposal to do with them as they please...And none are more obedient than the puppet government of Zaev's North Macedonia.

      Comment

      • Niko777
        Senior Member
        • Oct 2010
        • 1895

        #4
        Also: US Plans to Upgrade Military Bases in Romania, Bulgaria

        Comment

        • Tomche Makedonche
          Senior Member
          • Oct 2011
          • 1123

          #5
          Another article on the training exercises

          http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/arti...und-08-15-2018

          US Army Tests Out Macedonian Military Training Centre

          Some 200 soldiers from the US peacekeeping force in nearby Kosovo are giving Macedonia’s landmark Krivolak army training centre a test run for much bigger exercises planned for the near future.

          As Macedonia begins talks about joining NATO, an ongoing US military exercise may pave the way for restoring the country’s landmark Krivolak army training centre to its full capacity, offering thousands of NATO soldiers a place to drill.

          “Macedonia is not only using NATO resources, but it has something to offer to the alliance as well. The US land forces training in Krivolak can prove this,” Macedonian Defence Minister Radmila Shekerinska told media on Wednesday while visiting the training site accompanied by the US deputy ambassador to Macedonia, Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm.

          The 20-day US drill which will finish on August 20 aims to demonstrate that the site is suitable for larger exercises such as one planned next year dubbed ‘Decisive Strike 2019’ that will involve about 1,000 US and Macedonian soldiers, US military officials told American military magazine*Stars and Stripes last week.

          “The US Army is always looking for places to train,” Patrick Enriquez, deputy chief for the Office of Defence Cooperation at the US embassy in Skopje told Stars and Stripes last week.
          “We’ve been marketing Krivolak as an alternative, if not a solution,” he explained.

          Built some 70 years ago, the training site was used by the former Yugoslav military for high-calibre weapons training and aerial assault drills.*

          This makes Krivolak “perfect for large allied exercises”, said Enriquez.

          With the dissolution of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, much of the site quickly fell into disrepair, and has since then been used by the Macedonian Army who cannot utilise it to its full capacity.

          The site offers similar training capabilities to Grafenwoehr in Germany, but is a three-hour drive from Kosovo, which has no place for soldiers to do weapons training at this level, officials said.

          The training area’s proximity to Kosovo would permit US and other troops from NATO’s Kosovo force KFOR to return quickly to their posts in case of an emergency, US Colonel Nick Ducich, commander of the Multi-National Battle Group in charge of security in eastern Kosovo, told Stars and Stripes.

          When Krivolak is fully restored, it could accommodate a mechanised brigade of several thousand soldiers, Ducich said.

          In July, NATO formally invited Macedonia to begin talks to join the alliance.

          This was made possible after Macedonia signed a historic deal with Greece aimed at resoving their bilateral name dispute.*

          Under the deal, Macedonia agreed to change its name to Republic of North Macedonia, while Greece agreed to lift its long-standing veto on Macedonia's NATO and EU integration.

          For the deal to be fully implemented, Macedonians must show they support it in a referendum slated for September 30.
          Im suprised that im yet to hear anyone try and allude to this as preparations for a possibile military invasion/occupation taking into account the timing of these exercises. Sounds like the perfect excuse for the chicken shit fake patriots at DPNE to capitalise on in order to justify their cowardice
          “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you’ve got to make it stop, and you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all” - Mario Savio

          Comment

          • Pelagonija
            Member
            • Mar 2017
            • 533

            #6
            The Americans are there to protect FYROM from the imminent Russian invasion. Putin is planning to annex FYROM and merge it with Bulgaria says the CIA. Business is also booming for the local Albanian run brothels and drug dealers, the local politicians are delighted with the status quo.

            Comment

            Working...
            X