On 20 January, the large-scale military exercise entitled “Defender Europe 2020”, with an overall 37,000 soldiers from 18 countries participating, kicked off, reported georgiatoday. The military drill will take place in Germany, Poland, Georgia and the Baltic States.

The Defender 2020 exercise has five phases. The first phase includes a reception, staging, onward movement and integration, or RSOI, of a division-sized element, while many other units, including a National Guard brigade, will draw prepositioned stocks in Belgium and Germany. In the second phase, an immediate response force from the 82nd Airborne Division will conduct joint forced entries into the country of Georgia. The third phase has a division command post exercise that will have units spread out across the continent. It will also involve a Joint Warfighting Assessment to test multi-domain operations as well as capabilities being pursued by Army Futures Command. Soldiers will then conduct a river crossing in the fourth phase, as well as the forward passage of lines and a maritime prepositioned force off-load mission. The fifth phase will consolidate Army forces and redeploy them.

US Army Europe officials noted that “moving and sustaining thousands of troops for months at a time, along with their tanks and armored vehicles, will cost the US about $340 million.” 

The Defender 2020 in Europe is set to be the third-largest military exercise on the continent since the Cold War, according to Lt. Gen. Chris Cavoli, the U.S. Army Europe commander. Defender is “a very big deal,” Cavoli said because it will show that the U.S., its allies and its partners have the ability to deter conflict on the continent by rapidly introducing a massive ground force and projecting across the key territory.

From 2020 onward, the Defender exercise will become an annual series taking place in both the Pacific and Europe, but every other year will be a “light” year — referring to the number of participating troops.