Express.com<\/p>\n
The Italy-based 173rd Brigade were the first American troops to reach the Baltic states during the\u00a0Russian invasion of Ukraine<\/a>\u00a0in 2014.<\/p>\n But the assessment, which has been obtained by Politico, found that there was a series of \u201ccapability gaps\u201d such as the brigade\u2019s lack of air defence, electronic warfare units and over reliance on satellite communications and GPS navigation systems.<\/p>\n Colonel Gregory Anderson who commissioned the report told Politico: \u201cThe lessons we learned from our Ukrainian partners were substantial. It was a real eye-opener on the absolute need to look at ourselves critically.<\/p>\n \u201cWe felt compelled to write about our experiences and pass on what we saw and learned.\u201d<\/p>\n The report comes as Russia and Belarus announced they are conducting a huge\u00a0joint military exercise<\/a>\u00a0on September 14, involving almost 13,000 soldiers.<\/p>\n Russian Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin said the drills would be in line with international rules but observers have expressed concerns.<\/p>\n It has also been noted how the total of troops involved falls just short of the 13,000 threshold at which independent observers must be invited.<\/p>\n The 173rd Airborne Brigade has roughly 4,000 soldiers and would be no match against a Russian assault on Europe alone.<\/p>\n The regiment also parachuted into Iraq in the early days of the 2003 invasion and it also saw intense combat in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n The militants they battled had no technology and it is thought US troops have become reliant on technology such as GPS to fight.<\/p>\n The report highlights the challenge posed by Russia\u2019s jammers and other electronic warfare tools.<\/p>\n The report estimates these \u201cjammers could neutralise a GPS system from 50 miles away using one-fifth the power of a tactical radio\u201d.<\/p>\n US anti-tank weapons and artillery are also dependent on GPS and the report points out that the unit only has armoured Humvees designed to protect against roadside bombs in Iraq.<\/p>\n These would be \u201ceasy prey\u201d for Russian armoured vehicles and the report recommends replacing them with a forthcoming Ground Mobility Vehicle.<\/p>\n Former infantry officer Adrian Bonenberger said: \u201cThe report is framed as being about the 173rd, but it\u2019s really about more than the 173rd. It\u2019s about what the Army needs to do.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Russia uses electronic warfare to jam the brigade\u2019s artillery, and its anti-tank weapons can\u2019t penetrate any of the Russian armour, and they\u2019re able to confuse and disrupt and quickly overwhelm those paratroopers, we could be in for a long war.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Express.com The Italy-based 173rd Brigade were the first American troops to reach the Baltic states during the\u00a0Russian invasion of Ukraine\u00a0in 2014. But the assessment, which has been obtained by Politico, found that there was a series of \u201ccapability gaps\u201d such as the brigade\u2019s lack of air defence, electronic warfare units and over reliance on satellite communications and GPS navigation systems…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions\/853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}