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The unit's latest deployment was the busiest ever and saw a shift in training of European allies away from counterinsurgency operations. Instead, they're practicing conventional combat, amphibious raid operations, and will stand up a new company-sized unit in October complete with tanks and artillery, said Lt. Col. David Fallon, BSRF's commanding officer

It puts Marines in Russia's backyard and is just one way the U.S. is working to reassure allies, he said. That is critical given recent developments in the region.

"Our future chairman [of the joint chiefs of staff] and commandant is saying the biggest security threat as a nation is Russia," Fallon said. "I think you can predict with near certainty we will have a continued presence there as long as that remains so. Just in talking with our Eastern European allies and partners, it is very reassuring to them that our highest decision makers are clearly focused on this part of the world."

Fallon echoed recent comments by Brig Gen. Norm Cooling, the deputy commander of Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa, who cited the first ever deployment of MV-22 Ospreys to Romania in late May to participate in Exercise Platinum Eagle, as evidence of an increased commitment to a region spooked by Russian saber-rattling and intervention in places like Ukraine.

That renewed Cold War-style emphasis, and the Marines saw Black Sea Rotational Force pick up several training missions across Eastern Europe. Over the past six months, they completed nine major exercises and 46 military-to-military engagements. That is compared to just six exercises and 22 military-to-military engagements, during the previous rotation.

The next rotation of Marines will be even busier. They already have seven scheduled exercises, and 45 military-to-military engagements, with the possibility of more to come.

Here's how the Black Sea Rotational Force mission is evolving to meet the new rising threat in Eastern Europe.

The new iteration of Black Sea Rotational Force, which arrived in Eastern Europe in July, includes about 150 Marines that will be based in Bulgaria. The Combined Arms Company, which like the rest of BSRF, is manned by Marines on a six-month rotational basis, will include members of 2nd Tank Battalion; 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion; 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion; Combat Logistics Battalion 6; and 1st Battalion, 10th Marines.

The unit is also equipped with four Abrams main battle tanks, six light armored vehicles and three howitzers.

That is among the most notable changes to BSRF, Fallon said, because it introduced a whole new spectrum of operations to their military-to-military training. Having tanks, armor and artillery at the Marines' disposal means they'll not only serve as a deterrent, but allows those in armor and artillery specialties to swap best practices with allies' troops in the region.

"This is a very significant step in the BSRF evolution when you talk about regional instability," he said. "And it certainly sends a clear message to our partners that we are all-in."

With Bulgaria bordering the Black Sea, a body of water also bordered by Russia, the Marines will be just a few hundred miles from the embattled Crimean peninsula.

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Equally significant is a shift in the type of training Marines are engaging in with European allies as highlighted by a shift in the long-standing cooperation with Georgian forces. Marines trained Georgians in counter insurgency operations for the better part of a decade as they routinely deployed to Afghanistan in support of U.S. efforts there.

This year, however, during a two-week multinational exercise called Agile Spirit, Marines focused on large-scale, conventional, defensive and offensive operations that included not just Georgian troops, but also Romanian, Bulgarian, Latvian and Lithuanian soldiers.

"We were getting them to transition more toward a conventional force where they can provide for their own sovereignty and security," Fallon said.

The Marines with Black Sea Rotational Force can learn a lot from those engagements as well, he said, because the militaries in the region are highly skilled.

"The level of training and professionalism these European Union nations possess is not rudimentary," he said. "…We are working to know their [tactics, techniques and procedures] and they need to know ours if we ever have to operate side by side."

The latest iteration of BSRF also differed in its emphasis on shipboard operations, with Marines training aboard allies' vessels. Against the backdrop of shortage of amphibious assault ships, Marine leaders have said Marines could train and operate aboard NATO ships.

BSRF seized the opportunity to develop that concept, Fallon said. During Exercise Baltic Operations 2015, a training event held in June, Marines partnered with the British, Swedish, Polish, Latvian, Danish and Finnish troops to conduct ship-to-shore assaults off of allied vessels.

Marine were based on the British amphibious assault ship Ocean, from which they conducted a number of amphibious operations.

There was nothing in particular that was easier or more challenging in operating off a British ship, Fallon said, but the experience did provide the service with insight into its foreign ship basing initiative.

"It certainly is a topic of conversation in the Marine Corps right now," he said. "This was an opportunity, I think, for us as a service to field test some of those concepts, identify some of those challenges and begin working some of those solutions."

This fall, Europe-based Marines will further pursue the concept by testing MV-22 Osprey flights from Italian, Dutch, British, Spanish and French ships. Putting Marines aboard allies' ships could help the service respond more quickly to to crises in Europe and Africa.

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