The US forces decided to change
a concept of battalion-sized Battle
Group Poland. In the past the core
of the battle group was 2nd Cavalry
Regiment based in Germany and
equipped with Stryker IAVs. This
time, the unit assigned for this
task was Task Force Raider, the
278th Armored Cavalry Regiment
of Tennessee Army National Guard
with M1A2 Abrams main battle
tanks. Tanks were shipped to this
part of Poland for the first time
and were disembarked in port
of Gdansk. To the Orzysz FTA
they were transported by rail.
Other vehicles included M882A2
Hercules armored recovery
vehicles, M109A6 Paladin self-
propelled howitzers and M2 Bradley
infantry fighting vehicles. The Task
Force Raider later took part in the
Anaconda 2018 exercises.
At this moment the reason of
change in US policy of the battalion-
sized component of BGPOL remains
unclear. The battle group consists
also of units from United Kingdom,
Romania and Croatia. US DOD
already announced that another
deployment will also include
armored unit. It seems that M1A2
Abrams will be quite often spotted
in North-Eastern Poland.
278.ACR M1A2 Abrams tanks from Tennessee
Army National Guard. US Army
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