A M1A2 Abrams tank from the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division operates during training at the Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., on Feb. 27, 2023. The 3rd ID’s 2nd ABCT will deploy in the summer to Europe, the Army announced Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
Nine Army units are slated for overseas deployments in the summer as part of “regular troop rotations” to Europe, Korea and the Middle East, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.
The bulk of the troops deploying to Europe will come from Fort Stewart, Ga., while units from Fort Bliss, Texas, and Fort Bragg, N.C., will join them on the rotations meant to strengthen NATO partnership and deter Russian aggression. Units from Fort Drum, N.Y., Fort Hood, Texas, and Fort Sill, Okla., will deploy to the Middle East. A brigade from Fort Carson, Colo., will head to South Korea.
From Fort Stewart, the 3rd Infantry Division’s headquarters, its sustainment brigade and its 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team will deploy to Europe to train alongside NATO partners in Poland, Latvia and other eastern flank countries for about nine months, Army officials said. The division headquarters and sustainment brigade will replace the 4th Infantry Division’s headquarters and sustainment brigade. The 2nd ABCT will replace the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division.
Also going to Europe will be the 1st Armored Division’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team from Fort Bliss, which will replace the 1st Infantry Division’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team.
Fort Bragg’s 525th Expeditionary Military Intelligence Brigade will also deploy to Europe, replacing the 504th Expeditionary Military Intelligence Brigade, according to the Army.
The deployments will keep U.S. troops in Europe at about 100,000, which the Pentagon has maintained on the Continent since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has tapped the 10th Mountain Division’s 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team from Fort Drum for a deployment to the Middle East in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the mission to ensure the defeat of the Islamic State. That brigade will replace the 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, an Ohio National Guard brigade that has been serving in Kuwait, Iraq and Syria.
Also deploying to the Middle East is Fort Sill’s 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade headquarters, which will replace the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade headquarters in the region. Fort Hood’s 13th Expeditionary Sustainment Command will also deploy to the Middle East to replace the 143rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, a Reserve unit from Florida.
The Pentagon will send the 4th Infantry Division’s 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Carson to South Korea. It will replace the 2nd Infantry Division’s 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, which was the Army’s first Stryker brigade to serve a rotation to South Korea under a policy shift from rotating tank-heavy brigades to the Korean Peninsula in favor of the more infantry-centric Stryker units.
