US military bolstering its arsenal of weapons in Norway’s caves

The United States is adding massive amounts of new tanks and armored vehicles to its arsenal of weapons inside a series of climate-controlled caves in central Norway, according to Pentagon officials.

The caves in the Norwegian countryside are part of the Marine Corps’ global prepositioning program, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The rarely discussed program began during the Cold War as a way for the US to store weapons and vehicles in Europe and several locations across the world in case the Pentagon wanted to use them in war against the Soviet Union.

The Marine Corps is overseeing the current deployment of the military equipment in the Norway cave system, which was established in 1981, Marine officials said.

According to the Post, the Pentagon has over 700,000 square feet (65,032 square meters) facilities in Norway, including six climate-controlled caves and two airfields.

Much of what stored in the caves were pulled out for the US-led wars against Afghanistan and Iraq.

In February, a number of vehicles were taken out for Exercise Cold Response 2014, a military maneuver in which they served primarily as stuff to load on US transport ships to test out new piers.

According to Marine officials, the planned US military expansion in Norway has been under consideration since 2013.

The Pentagon has apparently decided to bolster its equipment in Norway at a time when tensions between the United States and Russia are very high over the crisis in Ukraine and a number of other issues.

In an interview with Press TV in May, American Professor James Petras said, the United States is implementing a global strategy of encircling Russia.

In March, Petras told Press TV that the world is heading towards a biggest crisis since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in a 13-day nuclear confrontation.

“I think we are entering a period of revival of a very intense Cold War” between Russia and the US, he said, adding that US President Barack “Obama has finally broken the string of any possibility of reaching a peaceful coexistence with Russia.”

GJH/GJH