This week, Ukrainian troops wrapped up the first rotation of battalion combined arms training at the Grafenwoehr training area of the US Army’s Bavarian Garrison in Germany this week, the Pentagon announced Friday.
The training focused on the M2 Bradley fighting vehicle, a Pentagon spokesperson said in a statement.
“Approximately 635 Ukrainians completed the approximately five-week training period, which included basic soldier tasks such as marksmanship, along with medical training, squad, platoon and company training, and a force-on-battalion exercise,” the general said. Air Force Brigade Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman.
The rotation is part of an ongoing effort, announced late last year, designed to help improve Ukraine’s battlefield capabilities in its second year of fighting the Russian invasion.
According to Ryder, a second training rotation of the Bradley launched two weeks ago, along with a field artillery rotation of the M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzer, which includes about 700 other Ukrainians.
“A 2nd Field Artillery Battalion and a Stryker Battalion – the first Ukrainian unit to receive training on the M1126 Stryker – will begin training next week, with both battalions combined consisting of approximately 890 Ukrainians.”
The Pentagon announced in November that it would create a new assistance command to oversee the training of Ukrainians in Europe, as well as provide billions of dollars in equipment and military aid from the United States. In the United States, the Ukrainians have trained on the Patriot air defense artillery system at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.