ARC delivers U.S. tanks, Bradleys to Germany

   American Roll-on Roll-off Carrier (ARC), the largest U.S.-flag ro/ro carrier, recently delivered 29 Abrams tanks and 33 Bradley fighting vehicles to the port of Bremerhaven, Germany.
   The Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, which arrived on Jan. 24,  were moved from the Port of Bremerhaven via rail to Grafenwöhr, Germany, where they will become part of the Joint Multinational Training Command European Activity Set (JMTC EAS). ARC worked with the U.S. Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, and U.S. Transportation Command to coordinate the move.
   “The move comes less than a year after what were thought to be the last main battle tanks in Germany returned to the United States,” ARC said in a statement. In April 2013, the last 22 Abrams tanks left Germany, coinciding with a drawdown in U.S. forces that saw the inactivation of two brigades — the 170th and the 172nd. ARC moved the 22 tanks back to the United States, seemingly marking the end of an era in which tanks had been a mainstay of the U.S. military’s footprint in Germany dating back World War II.
   ARC’s Independence II, which carried the military vehicles from Texas to Germany, operates in ARC’s five-ship Atlantic liner service. The service includes port calls in Baltimore, Charleston, Brunswick, Galveston, Antwerp, Bremerhaven, and Southampton. With a 10-day frequency, more than 2.5 million square feet of commercial capacity, and nearly 1 million square feet of militarily useful high and heavy space, the ARC U.S.-flag Atlantic service is particularly suited for commercial, military and project cargoes.