The Pentagon has reorganized the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment of the US Army on the Russian model in order to prepare US soldiers to fight against Russian servicemen.
Photo: RIA Novosti / Sergey Stepanov
The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (‘Blackhorse Regiment’) of the US Army has been partially reorganized on the Russian model – it will play the role of an ‘aggressor’ during military exercises, the Izvestiya newspaper reported.
“The US Army again needs ‘professional aggressors’, who will represent units of the Russian Army during military exercises. This task has been assigned to the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, which spent 17 years in western Germany in times of the confrontation between the blocs, preparing to defend the Fulda strategic passage, nicknamed the Thermopylae of the Cold War, from Soviet tanks,” the article reads.
For this, the 1st and 2nd squadrons of the regiment have been reorganized “in accordance with the structure of Russian motorized infantry battalions, squadrons and platoons, as well as equipped with the remodeled M113 armored fighting vehicles, which now look like the Russian BMP-2.” Vehicles, which resemble the BRDM-2, fake tanks and anti-tank guns, similar to the Russian Rapira, also became parts of the units.
According to the newspaper, this military hardware does not stand idly. So, in September, units of the 3rd armored brigade were trained at Fort Irwin National Training Center, in August – the 1st armored brigade of the 34th Infantry Division took part in military exercises. Earlier, squadrons of the regiment took part in training battles, including against the most modern unit of the US Army, the so-called Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT), equipped with the cognominal infantry combat vehicles. All in all, 15 military exercices were held at the National Training Centre during the year.
