US military helicopters arrive in Germany to boost NATO

US technicians prepare helicopters for the transport in Bremerhaven, Germany, February 12, 2017. (Photo by AP)

The US Army has begun unloading dozens of helicopters at a port in northern Germany as NATO continues boosting its combat presence in Eastern Europe.

Ninety-four Chinook, Apache and Black Hawk helicopters were sent to Bremerhaven so the aircraft can be moved to a base in Bavaria, German news agency DPA reported Sunday.

Several trucks from the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade in Fort Drum, New York, were also shipped to the port.

Most of the military equipment is bound for an Army base in the Bavarian town of Illesheim, but some will be assigned to rotating stints in Lithuania and Romania.

“Today, we are downloading a portion of the combat aviation brigade and it will be moved to Germany and Eastern Europe and will be scattered between Latvia and Romania, while a big chunk of it will be stationed in Germany,” Major General Duane Gamble, the commander of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, told reporters.

The equipment along with the deployment of 3,500 US troops, which began last month, are meant to boost NATO's eastern frontier to counter any perceived threat from Russia.

However, some observers fear the sheer scope of the deployment would only exacerbate tensions with Moscow.

Former defense secretary Ashton Carter announced the deployment last year, declaring that the force would take part in regular military drills across the region with NATO allies.

The move is the culmination of a heavier armed troop presence in Eastern Europe since the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea reunited with the Russian Federation following a referendum in March 2014.

The United States is not the only NATO member to beef up military presence in Eastern Europe. Britain has deployed fighter jets to patrol the Black Sea. Germany is also deploying hundreds of soldiers to the Baltic region near the Russian border.

Moscow has hit out at the biggest deployment of troops in Europe since the end of the Cold War, criticizing the move as a threat to Russia’s national security.