US Army has officially announced that it will be the 3rd Brigade Combat Team (IBCT, Infantry Brigade Combat Team) of the 10th Mountain Division — which is based at Fort Johnson, Louisiana, formerly Fort Polk — which will deploy to US European Command over the summer, replacing troops from the 101st and 82nd Airborne Division.

The 3rd IBCT is composed of thousands of regular US soldiers organized in 3 infantry battalions, cavalry, engineering, and artillery battalions, and a headquarters unit. They will deploy in Romania and other parts of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, as a continuation of the troop buildup on the continent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

This rotation is not new or unexpected. Troops from the 10th Mountain Division have been deployed overseas to Europe repeatedly in recent years as part of the NATO mission. The 82nd Airborne soldiers sent to Europe last year replaced a similar force from the 10th Mountain Division Headquarters. As declared by Lt. Col. Sarah Ray, 10th Mountain Division spokesperson, this deployment will continue to assure the NATO partners and allies about the US commitment to the old continent, “deterring further Russian aggression and reinforcing the NATO flank in eastern Europe.”

US Army Europe and Africa Command also added in another statement that 1,600 soldiers of the 3rd IBCT already arrived in Norway to take part in a multinational training between the United States, NATO, and new member Finland, which is going to kick off soon, involving more than 10,400 US service members. It is interesting to note that the unit will make history as the first light brigade combat team to deploy to a Nordic country. In accordance with the US Army Europe and Africa Command, with last year's influx of troops, the total number of American service members operating in Europe increased to more than 100,000.

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