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Tempo to increase in short term, Casey says

While deployment relief for soldiers may be in sight, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said today that operational tempo for units is only going to increase through the end of the year.

“We will actually increase the number of troops we have deployed by about 10,000 as we shift from Iraq to Afghanistan,” he told reporters at the Pentagon.

The additional 10,000 soldiers will increase the Army’s troop strength in the theater to about 156,000.

Casey wants to give soldiers at least two years of dwell time at home between deployments by the end of 2011. This falls in line with President Barack Obama’s directive that the combat mission in Iraq end by August 2010 and that U.S. combat troops withdraw from Iraq by 2011.

Senior Army officials have seen the proposed plan for the drawdown in Iraq, Casey said, but he would not discuss any details. However, he said, “The next 12 to 18 months are going to be tough,” as troops redeploy and reset.

Before any drawdown can begin, the number of brigade combat teams deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan will increase from 15 to 16 BCTs by the end of this year, with four BCTs in Afghanistan and 12 BCTs in Iraq.

“We will have 16 for about six to eight months, and then it will come back down again” to 15, Casey said.

More brigades are expected to draw down by end of 2011.

Deployments were on a 12-month schedule until early 2007, when a surge of 30,000 troops was sent to Iraq to help quell a rise in violence and tours were extended to 15 months. The Army reverted to 12-month deployments beginning in August.

Casey said in April that he wants to go to nine-month deployments in about two years.