US Army to Hold Exercise in Bulgaria in August

The US military will hold drills in Bulgaria at the end of August, the commanding general of US Army Europe Lt. Gen. Frederick "Ben" Hodges has said.

Speaking after a meeting with Bulgaria's Chief of Defence Vice-Admiral Rumen Nikolov in Sofia on Monday, Hodges said the drill will involve US ground troops and an airborne assault unit, according to BGNES news outlet.

The military airfileds in Balchik, on the Black Sea coast, and Tenevo, in southeastern Bulgaria, will be used during the exercise.

Gen. Hodges said in an interview for Stars and Stripes in January that surveys will be conducted in Eastern Europe to determine possible locations for tanks and other military hardware. Bulgaria was mentioned as one of the countries, where such a survey is going to take place and as a possible site for the storage of military equipment.