Why is US storing new tanks in hidden Norwegian caves?

(Looked to see if this was already posted and didn't find anything)

Published: 19 Feb 2016 12:59 GMT+01:00

Once dormant Cold War era caves are being restocked by the US Marines.

Russian spying can 'damage' Norway: PST (10 Feb 16)

US Marines are using Cold War era Norwegian caves to store new tanks, artillery and other military equipment to ramp up their presence near the Nato-Russia border, CNN reported on Thursday

"Any gear that is forward-deployed both reduces cost and speeds up our ability to support operations in crisis, so we're able to fall in on gear that is ready-to-go and respond to whatever that crisis may be," Col. William Bentley, said in a Marine video posted to Facebook:


Norwegian Heimevernet soldiers and U.S. Marines are rolling out main battle tanks, artillery, and logistics equipment out of Norwegian caves to support the upcoming Exercise Cold Response 2016, later this month.Catch all the coverage: http://(link tracking not allowed)/coldResponse16 #AlliedStrong
Posted by U.S. Marine Forces Europe and Africa on Monday, February 15, 2016

According to a Marines statement, the military began using the caves to store military equipment in 1981. When Cold War tensions subsided, the US military transferred the costs of maintaining the caves to Norway, Magnus Nordenman, the director of the Transatlantic Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council, told CNN.

But with Russia flexing its muscles in the region, the cave complex is now back in active use. Nordenman told CNN that the caves hold enough equipment to support some 15,000 Marines.
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www.thelocal.no...

So, it seems that the U.S. and Norway are "flexing their own arms" in response to Rusian actions. This cave is in active use again with new tanks from the U.S. and Norway.

Ah now look what you've done. They know now??!

All joking aside. Wow?!

It's one thing to store them in a yard out in the open but it's another to hide them?

However, would the harsh cold winters play a part here in the decision to store them out of it??

They're storing them there for the same reason that they're storing them in Kuwait, and other countries. When Iraq invaded Kuwait, it took months to get equipment moved to the area from the US. One of the lessons learned was to store equipment in friendly countries near where they might have a need to use them. Then it's just a matter of flying the people to the area, replacing some parts, such as seals, fuel filters, and the like, and they're ready to go in a few weeks, or even days, instead of months.

a reply to: CaptainBeno

If they leave them in the open they have to be protected against winter. Easier to put them somewhere to protect them from it.

replacing the ones they had there

a reply to: Zaphod58
As stated above, the amount of Stuff will support around 15,000 troops. Is this a normal amount of stuff? Or are there larger pockets of stuff hidden around other potentially troublesome areas? How much military hardware and supplies exist out there just sitting, waiting for something to happen?

a reply to: Zaphod58

But you can't negate the fact that this move is part of a response to Russian actions. That's the point.

a reply to: jalmo1

15,000 troops? When China and others have 1,000,000 troops? ONE MILLION? US has always stored stuff around the world since WW1 in the early 20th century.

In fact, after wars, we usually do leave stuff in the conquered country.

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

Actually it has nothing to do with Russia. They're replacing equipment that was removed for use in Iraq and exercises. They took almost 70% of the equipment stored there. They've had these caves open since 1988.

They're also modernizing and changing some of the equipment out. It was set up as a ground force, and it's being changed to a ground/air force to represent changes to doctrine since it was stored.

a reply to: Zaphod58

...
NATO is deploying tanks and military equipment to a series of caves in Norway. They have been largely redundant since the end of the Cold War, but now the alliance is stocking up on hardware, which will be deployed near NATO’s border with Russia.

It may seem like something from a James Bond movie, but NATO has been operating a slick operation in hillside caves built in the Norwegian countryside for decades. However, now the US-led alliance feels it is time to beef up its military presence, to prepare for what it perceives as a Russian threat.
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www.rt.com...

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

From RT. I'm so surprised they're going to say that.

The caves were all built-for-the-purpose, not modified from existing formations, and were conceived under a Cold War plan to preposition Marine equipment in Europe for the defense of NATO. The first cave opened in 1982, the complex was completed in 1988. The caves are managed by the Marines' Blount Island Command, which oversees all Corps prepositioning programs.
But in 2012, the program began to reconfigure and modernize the facility to support a modern Marine Air Ground Task Force. "We're now at the tail-end of that effort," Finch said. "It'll be completed in 2016."

But gear routinely is broken out for operations and exercises. More than 6,000 items were withdrawn in 2003 for Operation Iraqi Freedom. By 2005, the caves were down to about 30 percent full, but have gradually built back up. Across the facility in September, about 70 percent of the storage capacity is being used. More gear, from multiple sources, is expected to arrive in Norway in coming months, driving capacity up to nearly 100 percent.
Exercises drive some withdrawals — a map in the complex depicting worldwide deployments showed vehicles used as far away as Cambodia. A major breakout will take place early next year, when the Norwegian-led Exercise Cold Response takes place. The exercise, held every two years, will involve about 2,000 US Marines and up to 16,000 military personnel altogether, and take place in February and March.

www.defensenews.com...

The equipment is kept in climate-controlled caves in central Norway, giving the Marines equipment that is closer than the East Coast to use in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Much of what stored in the caves was pulled out and sent to the Middle East ahead of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The planned U.S. military expansion in Norway has been under discussion since 2013, Marine officials said. That’s before Russian-backed separatists seized the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine in February, and Putin declared it to be part of Russia in March.

www.washingtonpost.com...

More info over at D efense News. As Zaph said, replacing equipment that had been removed for operations in the ME.

The evolution is ending, not beginning. It will end in 2016 with stocks back near 100%.

originally posted by: Zaphod58

From RT. I'm so surprised they're going to say that.
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Ok, meanwhile in Russia...

Russian Roulette: US Risks Turning New Cold War Into a Nuclear One

World
13:57 13.02.2016(updated 11:47 14.02.2016)

US policy towards Russia and its recent decision to quadruple military spending on NATO’s forces on Russia’s border resembles Russian roulette, a deadly game of chance, and risks turning the new Cold War into a hot one, according to Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies at New York University and Princeton University.

Professor Stephen F. Cohen has been recently very critical of the Obama administration’s policy towards Russia and the “reckless escalation of its confrontation” with Moscow.

“The Pentagon’s announcement that it will more than quadruple military spending on the US-NATO forces in countries on or near Russia’s borders pushes the new Cold War toward actual war-possibly even a nuclear one,” he wrote in his article for The Nation magazine.

The political analyst stressed that “with the exception of Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, Western military power has never been positioned so close to Russia.”
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Read more: sputniknews.com...

I am not suggesting this means the U.S. will invade Russia.

You might try to dress it as something else but it is an escalation, and Russia sees it as a threat, and the U.S. sees Russian military exercises and actions close to the borders of other NATO allied forces/nations as a threat.

Such escalations have led to confrontations and wars in the past. I am not saying it will happen for real, but this is an escalation of military forces in the region with Russia.

That's how the Russians see it.

Sputnik is an international multimedia service launched on 10 November 2014 by Rossiya Segodnya, an agency wholly owned and operated by the Russian government, which was created by a Decree of the President of Russia on December 9, 2013.[2] Sputnik replaces the RIA Novosti news agency on an international stage (which remains active in Russia)[3] and Voice of Russia. According to its chief Dmitry Kiselyov, Sputnik intends to counter the "aggressive propaganda that is now being fed to the world".
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en.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

Of course they're not going to invade Russia. But when you store equipment, and you remove 70% of that equipment for other things, guess what? You have to replace it. It doesn't do you a damn bit of good if there's nothing there.

You mean that Russia might spin something into a threat to justify spending more money on their own military? That military that has been in desperate need of modernization? It's the exact same thing everyone else does, such as when they talk about Russian planes flying near their borders.

a reply to: Zaphod58

When you replace, and update military equipment close to the border of a nation that is seen as a threat is because you think that equipment could eventually be used in a confrontation with such nation. Does everybody do it?; of course. North Korea increases and updates it's military equipment close to South Korean borders, and vice-versa. Pakistan increases and updates it's military equipment close to the border of India, and vice-versa, etc, etc. All this updating and increases in military equipment close to borders of countries that are seen as a threat is seen as an escalation.

When defensenews, rt, sputnik, cnn, fox news, etc etc post articles in reference to military movements of their nations, they don't post the fact that such escalations have been discussed for who knows how long, and those nations (such as the U.S.) already predicted some of the moves of nations like Russia before anything about this is printed in the press.

You don't replace, and update military equipment close to nations seen as a threat to simply waste money, although it does happens at times.

Russia was already planning the invasion of Crimea, and movement of troops close to Ukraine for months, or even a year or more before it was in the news, and the U.S. has been most probably listening to these plans before they were executed.

The fact that the U.S. planned this supposedly in 2012 doesn't mean that it wasn't done as a response to the plans from Russia.

You know very well, most of us do not know what happens behind the close doors of these countries, and such information is not told to the media.

The fact remains, Russia sees this as a threat and the U.S. and Norway know this.

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

They see it as a threat because it gives them a justification to spend more on their own military. Just as the West tries to make people scared every time a Russian plane flies near another country. They know that the US and NATO are never going to invade them. It would be suicide to even try.

You put far more faith in US intelligence services than anyone else if you think they knew Russia was moving into the Crimea a year ahead of time.

As for modernizing, of course it's done. Otherwise there would still be WWII equipment sitting out there instead of modern equipment.

Once again, this equipment has been sitting there since 1988.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
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You put far more faith in US intelligence services than anyone else if you think they knew Russia was moving into the Crimea a year ahead of time.
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If they had been listening to the phone calls of Angela Merkel, one of our allies which is not seen as a military threat, you think the U.S. is not spying on Russia?

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

Spying on doesn't mean they know every plan that they have in the works a year ahead of time. There's a huge difference between getting information about allies and getting information on potential adversaries. There are dozens of ways to keep information from being intercepted.

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

No worries, though. When we have either killed thousands of them or us, we will high tail it to the nearest safe zone, leaving all that equipment there for the next enemy to use against us.

Can we all agree the fact that we are openly discussing what and where they are pretty much excludes the term "Secret Caves"?

Unless our collective Security Clearance was updated over the weekend, it is hardly a covert operation.