May 11, 2024: American allies have come to depend on the United States to get military forces anywhere on the planet in a surprisingly short time. This feat is unique to the United States and is accomplished through the use of nuclear powered aircraft carriers, cruise missile carrying nuclear submarines and prepositioned stocks of weapons sufficient to equip a combat brigade. If you need an American combat brigade on the spot and ready to fight, you use the APS (Army Prepositioned Stocks). Fly in the several thousand soldiers that use APS weapons and equipment and you have a combat brigade ready to fight or just be there to deter someone else from starting trouble. Currently the United States Army has two APS sites in Germany, for use against attacking Russians. There are also APS sites in Japan and South Korea and another carried by commercial ships berthed at Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean. The army is considering establishing another APS site in Finland or Sweden because of the growing Russian threat in the Russian northwest along the Finnish and Norwegian borders.

The U.S. holds regular training exercises where troops are flown to an APS site where they take control of the equipment, carry out some field exercises lasting six or seven weeks and then return the equipment to the APS site where the weapons and equipment are checked for wear and tear. Any damage incurred by the APS equipment is repaired and all equipment returned to storage. These exercises also assure troops that the APS equipment is in good shape and if any problems are encountered, they are taken care of. Sometimes that means personnel changes for the staff that maintains the APS site. The PAS sites also require a supply of spare parts, vehicle fuel and fresh batteries that must be constantly monitored to ensure enough of everything is available to make the APS equipment work.