Jul 05. The Department of the Army announced today the locations for the active component modular brigade combat teams. The modular design and their stationing are both critical to ensure the Army is properly postured to maintain the high degree of readiness needed to meet its strategic commitments, including ongoing operations globally in the war on terror. Today’s announcement provided additional detail to decisions that were factored in to the Defense Department base realignment and closure recommendations revealed in May 2005. The decisions implementing the Defense Department’s Integrated Global Presence and Basing Strategy (IGPBS) recommendations allow the Army to return up to 50,000 soldiers from overseas locations by the end of the decade. This stationing of brigade combat teams (BCTs) allows the Army to continue its transformation to a campaign-quality force with joint and expeditionary capabilities that meet the future demands of the combatant commanders. The secretary of defense approved an increase in the number of active modular BCTs from 33 to 43 on Jan. 30, 2004. Two key recommendations of the global force presence realignment decisions include the return of the 1st Infantry Division (1ID) to Fort Riley,
Kan., and the relocation of the 1st Armored Division to Fort Bliss, Texas. The 1ID will return in fiscal 2006 and the timing for the return of the 1AD is under review. The Army selected locations for modular brigade combat teams based on
existing and potential capacities, available training space, and current locations of similar and supporting units. The Army preserves its historic heraldry and lineage in this design. While the modular brigade combat teams follow historic division and brigade unit naming conventions, these units are of a completely different design than their predecessors. The essence of this transformational design is a new force that can be deployed singularly or in groups – ready for employment in a variety of designs as self-contained modules over a dispersed area. The Army modular force initiative involves the total redesign of the operational Army into a larger – more powerful – more flexible and more rapidly deployable force and moves us away from a division-centric structure to one built around the Army’s new modular combat team.
Active Brigade Combat Teams Posture:
Fort Benning, Ga. – 1 Brigade Combat Team
Fort Bliss, Texas – 4 Brigade Combat Teams
Fort Bragg, N.C, – 4 Brigade Combat Teams
Fort Campbell, KY – 4 Brigade Combat Teams
Fort Carson, Colo. – 4 Brigade Combat Teams
Fort Drum, N.Y. – 3 Brigade Combat Teams
Fort Hood, Texas – 5 Brigade Combat Teams
Fort Knox, Ky. – 1 Brigade Combat Team
Fort Lewis, Wash. – 3 Brigade Combat Teams (Stryker)
Fort Polk, La. – 1 Brigade Combat Team
Fort Richardson, Alaska – 1 Brigade Combat Team
Fort Riley, Kan. – 3 Brigade Combat Teams
Fort Stewart, Ga. – 3 Brigade Combat Teams
Fort Wainwright, Alaska – 1 Brigade Combat Team
Schofield Barracks, Hawaii – 2 Brigade Combat Teams (Stryker)
Korea – 1 Brigade Combat Team
Germany – 1 Brigade Combat Team (Stryker)
Italy – 1 Brigade Combat Team
Fort Irwin, Calif. – (NTC 1 Brigade Combat Team (-))
25 Jul 05. In a ribbon cutting ceremony today, a new V-22 Logistics Support Facility (VLSF) officially opened at the Craven County Industrial Park to provide interim logistics support for the V-22 Osprey aircraft. The New Bern VLSF is an important first step in the development of a long-term commitment to V-22 support in eastern North Carolina . The region is vital to the V-22 because of the NAVAIR Depot Cherry Point and the test and operational squadrons that will be home based at MCAS New River, south of Jacksonville . The first of those squadrons, the U.S. Marine Tiltrotor Test and Evaluation Squadron (VMX-22), is already operating at MCAS New River
27 Jul 05. Northrop Grumman Corporation and Raytheon Company team for the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) program has selected All