The Spanish Army is deploying a heavy armored unit abroad for the first time as enhanced Forward Presence in the east of the Alliance.

Troops supported by Leopard tanks and Pizarro armored vehicles, will deploy from beginning of June for six months. Around 300 troops have been deployed, 250 of which are from the Mechanized Infantry Brigade Extremadura XI, including a logistics unit and a team of engineers.

They will constitute the second biggest contingent of the Latvian-based multinational battle-group led by Canada.

The battle-group will also be supported by Albania, Italy, Poland and Slovenia.

The Spanish unit will also support with Leopard 2E main battle tanks and Pizarro combat vehicles.

The deployment will last six months.

Source: NATO

Several Abrams loaded on a train spotted in Wilmington with an interesting new camo pattern very rare to see, it could be useful in European or Middle Eastern military scenario.

Several Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles have been loaded onto Ro-Ro ship Liberty Promise ready to be transferred to another continent, probably Europe.

The vessel will travel weekly between the city of Vladivostok in eastern Russia and the North Korean port of Rajin.

Vladimir Baranov, director of the company that operates the Man Gyong Bong boat serving the route, said potential passengers included “North Koreans coming to work in Russia and tourists from northern China who miss the sea because they don’t have their own.

“Also it will service cargo because currently the logistics are horrible, it takes 22 days for cargo to get from Vladivostok to Rajin.”

Baranov said Russian tourist companies had expressed interest in travelling to North Korea by ferry.

Read More At:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/18/ferry-service-between-north-korea-russia-starts-weekly-service

Video (May 16, 2017)

South Korea’s Defense Minister Han Min-koo warned Tuesday that his country will launch a pre-emptive strike if there are clear signs of an imminent North Korean missile attack.

“Our position is that we can launch a pre-emptive strike to reduce damage on our side if there are clear signs of an imminent North Korean missile attack,” Han told a session of the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee.

Read More At:

http://m.yna.co.kr/mob2/en/contents_en.jsp?cid=AEN20170516008700315&site=0200000000&mobile

Over 800 troops from the United Kingdom, who are part of the battalion deployed in Estonia, and about 300 French troops will participate in the drills. Germany sent about 400 troops, who will join soldiers from Canada, Finland, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Ukraine and the United States to participate in the exercise.

Read More At:

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201705121053546210-leopard-2-tanks-estonia-nato/

A White House official handling Korea affairs arrived in Seoul Monday for a two-day visit to prepare for a summit between the leaders of South Korea and the United States.

The leaders will likely discuss cooperation on North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats. Also high on the agenda could be the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea, which was decided and carried out by the administration of Moon’s predecessor.

Read More At:

http://m.yna.co.kr/mob2/en/contents_en.jsp?cid=AEN20170515005653315&domain=3&ctype=A&site=0100000000