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No talk of deploying new US armored vehicles to Europe — commander

Earlier reports said the Pentagon was considering plans to store US heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 troops on allied bases in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary

WASHINGTON, June 15. /TASS/. The Pentagon’s plans on sending US heavy weapons to Eastern Europe and the Baltic states envisage no deployment of additional military equipment beyond that announced earlier, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, commander US Army Europe, has said.

"The equipment described in the article all refers to the same Armored Brigade Combat Team," Hodges said, in comments to the report by The New York Times on Saturday.

The report said the Pentagon was considering plans to store US heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 troops on allied bases, namely in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and possibly Hungary.

The plans to send another armored brigade of between 3,000 and 5,000 troops from Fort Hood, Texas, to Europe were unveiled by Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General Raymond Thomas "Ray" Odierno in September 2014.

Washington also elaborated decisions that armored vehicles and other heavy equipment would remain in Europe to enable the US to rotate troops for several years there, Odierno said. This equipment was expected to be stored in Grafenwoehr, Germany.