British army will send 1,350 troops with main battle tank Challenger 2 in Poland for NATO exercise 3

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Defence & Security News - United Kingdom

 
 
Wednesday, July 30, 2014 07:54 AM
 
British army will send 1,350 troops with main battle tank Challenger 2 in Poland for NATO exercise.
United Kingdom will send an armoured battle group of tanks and 1,350 troops to Poland for NATO war games designed to sure up the alliance’s eastern members against fears of Russian aggression. The British army will deployed more than 350 combat vehicles including 20 Challenger II main battle tanks as part of Exercise Black Eagle in October.
     
     

The deployment will see British troops backed by Challenger tanks and Warrior armoured fighting vehicles join other NATO forces for a two-month exercise in eastern Europe.

New British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon announced July 28 that the deployment of a battle group of 1,350 personnel and 350 vehicles is the UK’s biggest commitment to the region since 2008.

The manoeuvres come as the Kremlin is accused of continuing to stoke the conflict in Ukraine by shelling across the border and increasing the flow of weapons and supplies to Moscow-backed separatists.

The Ministry of Defence in London said the UK would send “a full battle group comprising 1,350 personnel and more than 350 armoured and other vehicles to a major military exercise in Poland as part of a NATO package to reassure Eastern European allies”.

The force to join Exercise Black Eagle from October to December, is the biggest British force sent to Eastern Europe since 2008.