Stryker Brigade News

In recent years, U.S. combat brigades have spent as few as 18 months in the States between deployments to Iraq. That is beginning to change as force levels in Iraq slowly drop, according to Pentagon Army spokesman Lt. Col. Carl Ey. "Now we're getting close to 24 months."

There are around 130,000 U.S. troops in Kuwait and Iraq, down from 150,000 a few months ago.

Ey explains that, ideally, active-duty brigades spend a year in each of three pools that represent the deployment cycle: the reset and training pool, the readiness pool and the available forces pool from which units are drawn for deployments. There are typically 18 brigades in each pool at any given time. The available forces pool might include as many as four reserve-component brigades.

Ey points out that while National Guard and Reserve brigades deploy alongside active brigades, they spend more time in the reset and training pool due to a federal law that limits reserve units to just one year deployed out of six.

The deployment cycle is flexible, Ey says. In emergencies, the 18 brigades in the readiness pool can be bumped up to the available forces pool early. And when deployment requirements relax, units can spend more time in the non-deploying pools.

Despite Harvey's statements and shrinking troop numbers in Iraq, the Army isn't rushing to move brigades out of the available forces pool. When the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division's deployment to Iraq was put on hold in early May, the unit remained in Germany at a high state of readiness. The Army wanted to make sure the brigade was available to regional commanders on short notice, Ey says.