US Ambassador to Albania, Yuri Kim has received Saturday the soldiers from the New Jersey National Guard who arrived in Tirana to help Albania in its preparations for the Defender 21 exercise.

The US soldiers will aid the country receive 2 UH-60A Blackhawk helicopters from the States and will conduct trainings to prepare the Albanian Armed Forces for the Defender drill, as the US Embassy in Tirana announced.

“Ambassador Yuri Kim welcomes U.S. soldiers from the New Jersey National Guard who arrived in Tirana today. They will help prepare Albania to receive two UH-60A Blackhawk helicopters from the United States and will also conduct training events to prepare the Albanian Armed Forces for exercise Defender21”, informed the Embassy on the social networks.

The Defender 21, one of the largest U.S.-Army led military exercises in decades has kicked off and will run until June, with 28,000 total troops from 27 nations taking part. Defender Europe 2021 will include “nearly simultaneous operations across more than 30 training areas” in a dozen countries.

The exercise is the deployment of a division-size force from the United States to Europe, pulling equipment from Army prepositioned stocks, then moving personnel and equipment across the theater to multiple training areas, have reported the international media earlier.