After the Cold War ended, the U.S. military began a downsizing process that included drawing down some troops and equipment in Europe but as a contingency plan, the Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 (APS-2) were created, pre-positioning war material in Europe should they ever be needed during a crisis. For the first time in history, APS-2 has been activated as war rages in Ukraine.
While the past twenty years of combat have been largely defined by high-speed special operators in the public eye, today's conflict is conventional in nature and from an American perspective is defined by long-standing military arrangements, alliances, and deterrence be it NATO or APS-2.
With APS-2 activated to support American troop deployments to Germany, these reserves are not getting more soldiers assigned to them. The stockpile was maintained by a mere 180 American and Belgian personnel but now an additional 130 have been added as a U.S.-based maintenance unit was deployed to assist them, according to the Army.
As of this week, the two units are integrating and cross-training, as well as beginning to figure out how to distribute their workload. APS-2 reserves have already been activated, with some assets shipped out via rail to Germany to outfit an armored brigade. Those assets include the Abrams main battle tanks, the Bradley fighting vehicle, generators, trucks, and much more.
"I believe this team is going to end up being a theater asset more so than just a Zutendaal asset," said Tiffany Mikus, who is the site director at Zutendaal, for the 405th Army Field Support Brigade in an Army press release.
Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.
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