ISTANBUL

The US has delivered the first shipment of tanks and armored vehicles to NATO storage facility in Powidz, Poland, as part of efforts to reinforce NATO's eastern flank. 

The US Army spokesman Terry Welch said in a statement that 14 M1 Abrams battle tanks and an M88 armored recovery vehicle have arrived by rail Thursday at the Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 worksite in Poland's Powidz, American military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported on Friday.

The statement indicated that the facility in Powidz, which will be managed by the 405th Army Field Support Brigade, is NATO's most important single infrastructure effort in more than 30 years.

In total, 85 tanks, 190 armored vehicles, 35 artillery guns, and various ammunition will be stored at the facility, which will be fully operational next year, about 250 miles from the Ukrainian border.

Brigade commander Colonel Ernest Lane II said in a statement that the "facility has a huge impact on NATO."

"The strategic location allows us to have multiple avenues of approach and routes of departure and embarkation. It is an example of strategic positioning in the right place, at the right time," Lane added.

The storage facilities are intended to reduce the deployment timelines of tanks, armored vehicles and ammunition required for war, exercises or training from 60 days to less than a week.