The last of the U.S. Army convoys heading for Ex Saber Strike 22 is in Slovakia already

Having completed a tactical road march from Germany, the last of the U.S. Army convoys that has arrived for international Ex Saber Strike 22 is in Slovakia already. As part of the convoy's route plan, the convoy made a scheduled 24-hour halt at Malacky – Kuchyňa Air Base.

Approx. 2,000 members of the U.S. Armed Forces, with around 600 pieces of combat equipment (CE) and combat support equipment (CSE), and nearly 1,300 members of the Slovak Armed Forces will take part in the exercise. The training event has been planned for two years now.

Commander 46 Wing Kuchyňa Col Peter Prokop said: “The U.S. Army convoys arrived in our base at stages usually late in the evening, they departed the following evening and the route then took them to Levice and Lešť where they would conduct training.”

The Kuchyňa base served as a one-day convoy halt location for the U.S. troops to refuel their vehicles from their tanker trucks and to conduct basic checks on vehicles. “I very much appreciate the friendly helpfulness and professionalism of Slovak soldiers, our collaboration is running at 100%,” said Capt Andrew Thompson, of the 16th Support Brigade, one of the dozens of U.S. soldiers who helped prepare the halt site for the arrival of the U.S. Army convoys.

With the training audience from 13 nations, exercise activities will occur across Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and the Baltic states. Ex Saber Strike, a bi-annual multinational training event, forms a firm part of NATO's Military Training and Exercise Programme (MTEP). For this reason, it is not related to the latest raft of measures in response to the Russia-Ukraine stand-off. Upon exercise completion, all the deployed Allied units will conduct return movements to their respective garrisons in Germany.