A U.S. armored unit staged live-fire drills at a firing range near the border with North Korea last week as part of an exercise designed to check its readiness to swiftly deploy from the U.S. mainland, the U.S. Army in South Korea said Tuesday. Troops from a battalion within the 1st Armored Division mobilized M1A2 Abrams tanks, M109-A6 howitzers and M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles for the drills at Rodriguez Live Fire Complex in Pocheon, about 30 kilometers south of the border, from Aug. 5-9, according to the 8th Army. After being notified of the rapid deployment exercise in mid-July, the battalion based in Fort Bliss, Texas, arrived in South Korea late last month, where they received their combat equipment from a U.S. military base in the southeastern part of the country. "This opportunity to train ... reinforces our commitment to the ROK in maintaining security and stability on the Korean Peninsula," Lt. Col. Christopher Lorete, the battalion commander, said in a release. ROK stands for Republic of Kore a, the South's official name. The exercise took place as part of the U.S. military's Operation Pacific Fortitude, which routinely tests a unit's ability to rapidly deploy personnel to a given environment, conduct training and redeploy back home. Source: Yonhap News Agency