The post-2014 Black Sea security environment
From its outset, OAR identified the maintenance of ‘persistent deployments’
to the Black Sea as one of its goals.154 Thus, in January 2017 under the umbrella
of OAR, the US 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division
(consisting of more than 4000 troops and 2000 vehicles, including tanks, armoured
personnel carriers, supply trucks and trailers) was moved to Poland from Fort
Carson, Colorado.155 From there, units were transferred for training and drills
to other countries in Central Europe, mainly the Baltic states and Bulgaria and
Romania. This type of operation aims to ensure that NATO units are continuously
being lined up at or close to the Russian border.
The USA has also sought to deploy advanced military aircraft to the Black Sea
region. In April 2017 it deployed a so-called Theater Security Package consisting
of 300 US Air Force personnel and 12 F-15 combat aircraft to Graf Ignatievo Air-
base in central Bulgaria.156 The most advanced ‘stealth’ (low radar, infrared and
visual signature) US combat aircraft have also been deployed to the region: two
F-35A aircraft were forward deployed to Graf Ignatievo Airbase for a short period
in April 2017.157 As part of the 2017 Sea Breeze exercise, two P-8 Poseidon aircraft
were deployed to the region (near Ukraine) for the first time, providing NATO
with advanced anti-submarine and electronic intelligence capabilities in the
Black Sea.158
In July 2017, 15 UH-60 helicopters were deployed from the 10th Combat
Aviation Brigade in Germany to Romania. This task force operation was designed
to demonstrate the ability to mass battalion-size aviation in the Black Sea region
and marked the onset of a continuous rotation of UH-60s to Mihail Kogălniceanu
Airbase in south-eastern Romania, near the Black Sea coast.159
The frequency of deployment of advanced US warships to the Black Sea has
increased, drawn from the US Sixth Fleet.160 The USS Carney entered the Black
Sea in early January 2018, the third US destroyer to patrol the region since August
2017.161
In February 2018 the USA further increased its naval engagement in
the region with the simultaneous deployment of two destroyers (USS Ross and
USS Carney) to the Black Sea. A US military official was reported to indicate that
the deployment was to ‘desensitize Russia’ to the presence of the US military there
through a ‘proactive’ mission.162
Alongside strengthened conventional forces in the region, US special forces
have expanded operations along NATO’s eastern flank, including in the NATO
Black Sea countries and in Georgia and Ukraine.163
The US European Command (EUCOM) supports the Black Sea Area Support
Team (BS-AST, formerly the JTFE) to strengthen military relationships between
the USA and its allies in Central and Eastern Europe. BS-AST focuses on enhancing
the capacity of the USA’s partners and fostering regional cooperation. It provides
the USA, Bulgaria and Romania with training facilities and integrated combined
staff to support combined arms training.164
The USA has maintained the Black Sea Rotational Force at the Mihail Kogăl-
niceanu Airbase since 2010. This is a semi-annual rotation of US marines and
sailors able to respond to a broad range of military operations in the EUCOM
area of responsibility. The force is designed to provide the capacity for rapid crisis
response in the Black Sea, Caucasus and Balkan regions.
From 2014 the USA increased its deployments of marines to the Black Sea
region. In 2015, for example, the US Marines Combined Arms Company was
deployed to Bulgaria together with heavy weapons.165 The US Marine Corp holds
regular regional exercises in the Black Sea involving Bulgarian and Romanian
forces and also Ukrainian marine units.166 Some exercises, such as Spring Storm
2018, have involved the deployment of US amphibious assault ships to the Black
Sea.167 The Georgia Deployment Program–Resolute Support involves heel-to-toe
deployment of US marines to Georgia to train Georgian personnel for deployment
to Afghanistan.168
In 2018 the USA announced that it would end the rotation of
marines to the Black Sea and instead concentrate its forces in the arctic high
north of Europe. In place of the marine rotational force, the USA will increase
its presence in the joint rotational forces in Romania. US marines will, however,
continue to participate in exercises in the Black Sea.169
As well as supporting rotational deployments, the ERI has been used to fund
defence infrastructure projects in the Black Sea region, with a focus on the Mihail
Kogălniceanu base in Romania and the Novo Selo training area in Bulgaria.170
The Romanian base grew rapidly following its designation as the centralized
operations and mission command centre for the US Army throughout the Black Sea
region. The new infrastructure is intended to provide the facilities (maintenance,
storage and supply) needed to sustain an increase in US rotational troops and the
massing of multinational forces, as demonstrated ahead of the Saber Guardian
2017 exercise.171
In January 2018 the USA announced a $3 million upgrade of the
Câmpia Turzii Airbase in Romania, also as part of the ERI.172
The USA has also extended its support for the development of new military
infrastructure to NATO partners in the region. Thus, in 2017 the construction of a
maritime operations centre at Ochakiv Naval Base in Ukraine was undertaken by
US forces with support from the ERI.173
The USA takes the lead in two major, regular multinational military training
exercises in the Black Sea region: Sea Breeze and Saber Guardian. The July 2017
Sea Breeze exercise involved more than 3000 military personnel from 17 states,
including approximately 800 US personnel from various branches of the US
military. The USA deployed new capabilities to the region in the form of the
P-8A maritime patrol plane, as well as sending both the destroyer USS Carney and
the cruiser USS Hue City.174 A particular focus of Sea Breeze 2017 was building
interoperability with Ukraine.175 Most of the $4.5 million cost of the 2017 exercise,
not including the cost of operating the two US warships, came from the ERI.
Saber Guardian is an annual USA-led multinational military exercise that rotates
between Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine as host and is designed to ‘demonstrate
the United States and NATO’s superior joint and combined capabilities and
highlight [their] collective will to defend against regional aggression’ in the Black
Sea region.176
In 2017 the third iteration of the exercise took place in Romania,
Bulgaria and Hungary, with 25 000 troops from more than 20 states, primarily
NATO members, including for live fire at the Cincu training grounds in Romania.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/r...f72463e5022c245dcab1&seq=1
Kome snaga argumenta leži u brisanju, tragovi mu nečoveštvom smrde.