On the surface this seems good:
Soldiers with the Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment began the almost 1,000-mile tactical road march back to Germany Wednesday, hours after battling Romanian “enemies” in an exercise aimed at testing NATO forces’ readiness in the Balkans and Black Sea region.
Exercise Saber Guardian was one of several planned this summer around the Black Sea, where tensions have risen in recent years after Russian naval buildup in the region and its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
In the scenario set for the exercise, a heavily armed enemy force attempted to cut off NATO communications around the Black Sea, and an allied unit had to quickly move into position to defend the area and prevent the attack.
That sounds like a challenge. Make our light armor face a "heavily armed enemy force."
But then there is this detail in the definitions section:
The 2nd Cavalry, known as the Dragoons, used Stryker armored vehicles to fight against the Romanian Army’s Soviet-era BTR-80 armored personnel carriers. Thanks to the Strykers’ superior firepower, the Americans neutralized the mock enemy’s home-turf advantage in the central Romanian hills – but not without a fight.
So "heavily armed" means BTR-80 APCs with less armament than the Strykers?
That is not a real world test given all the tanks that Russia fields even in their airborne formations.
But it is the threat level that we claim we need to prepare for:
American infantry will get a light tank able to outmatch Russian light tanks. Be still my heart.
Pray tell, given all the main battle tanks Russia has in the active force and in reserve, in what circumstances will our infantry brigades be facing off against Russian light armor only? Good grief, the Russians are giving heavy armor to their airborne forces!
You know what would outmatch Russian light tanks as well as outmatch their heavy armor? Our Abrams tanks that we have in abundance outside of the force structure. ...
In eastern Europe there are damn few scenarios where the Abrams isn't what American infantry need to avoid being slaughtered by Russian heavy armor and massed artillery fire.
But perhaps I'm being silly and we really can count on the Russians to be as sporting as our Romanian allies by bringing only APCs to a real fight against our Stryker brigade.
We'll be well prepared for that scenario.
