Loading of the US Bradley infantry fighting vehicles intended for transfer to Ukraine on the US ARC Integrity in North Charleston, 01/25/2023 Oz Suguitan / US Army Transport Command
At night, the first batch of US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles destined for Ukraine arrived in Europe. The cargo ship ARC Integrity on board moored in the port of the German city of Bremerhaven on the North Sea coast.
In total, more than 60 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, an unnamed number of AN / TWQ-1 Avenger mobile air defense systems and M88A2 Hercules armored recovery vehicles (BREM) were loaded on board in the United States. HMMWV vehicles were also seen during unloading. After it was unloaded in Germany, the military equipment will be transferred by rail to Poland and then to Ukrainian front lines.
According to the US Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), the first batch of “more than 60” M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles was loaded onto the ARC Integrity in the port of North Charleston (South Carolina) on January 25, 2023. On the night of January 26, the ARC Integrity moved from North Charleston to the US port of Dundalk in Maryland, from where it left for Europe on the evening of January 27.
The Ukrainian military should receive at least 109 M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles from the US. Supply of the first 50 M2 Bradley vehicles to Ukraine was announced by the US Department of Defense on January 6, 2023. 59 more vehicles were included in a military assistance package on January 19. The US Department of Defense reported that Ukraine is provided with BMP M2A2 ODS.
In its turn, the Ukrainian military is already mastering the US-made vehicles. Training of Ukrainian crews on Bradleys began at the end of January in Germany. According yo the Pentagon, special accelerated courses were developed for Ukrainian servicemen in order to accelerate the training process. The courses will last for several weeks, and not months, as it was expected.
Also on February 13, German Defense Ministry spokeswoman Nadine Kluger claimed that the Bundeswehr began training Ukrainian soldiers on German Leopard 2 tanks. The training takes place at the training ground in Munster in Lower Saxony. It is planned to be completed by the end of March when the German tanks are expected to come to Ukraine.
