<p>Thousands of US and NATO forces and dozens of tanks, helicopters, planes and ships are staging a variety of maneuvers during two major Baltic Sea-region exercises in June, including a mock beach landing in Ustka, Poland on Wednesday. In this video, Polish Navy officers Lt. Maciej Skladanowski and Ensign Izabela Bielawska fire a .50-caliber machine gun aboard US destroyer Jason Dunham. Bielawska can be seen laughing after the gun’s recoil kick.</p><p>The beach landing exercise is taking place about 100 miles to the south of Kaliningrad, a heavily militarized part of Russia sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania.</p><br /><p>Polish and Baltic state leaders, concerned about a resurgent Russia, have been welcoming allied forces to their land and sea test bases, the Associated Press reported. Polish and Romanian leaders have asked for a more permanent allied military presence ahead of next year’s NATO summit in Warsaw.</p><br /><p>Paricipation in Baltops, an annual event, has been signif
