Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan [OEF-A]
US Forces Order of Battle
October 2009
These orders of battle represent a "best available" order-of-battle of forces deployed in CENTCOM's part of Central Asia in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The amount of publicly available information concerning aircraft types and specific units makes it difficult to provide a high fidelity profile of deployments "current" to the stated timeframe of the order of battle. There are likely significant gaps in unit identifications, as well as non-trivial uncertainties as to numbers of specific types of aircraft. The presence of significant numbers of civilian contractor personnel at various facilities in the region further complicates accounting for total personnel numbers.
Recent Developments
In August 2009, elements of 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, deployed to Afghanistan to take up positions in Regional Commands West and South.
On 3 September 2009, the Department of the Army announced the extension of a division headquarters and a combat aviation brigade in Afghanistan, as well as the future deployment of a division headquarters with recent Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) experience.
These moves were part of an initiative to place units on a habitual rotation to take advantage of their knowledge of the complex environment to which they were returning and to increase deployment stability. We will seek to better align the rotation of units and their headquarters for force cohesion.
The units being extended were the 82nd Airborne Division Headquarters, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, Fort Stewart, Georgia. The 82nd Airborne Division would extend its current deployment by approximately 50 days, and the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade would extend for 14 days. These extensions were necessary to allow follow-on units to accrue one year of time at home station before redeploying (dwell time). The process would be managed to avoid any stop-loss for personnel.
The follow-on forces were to deploy in the late spring of 2010. They were the 101st Airborne Division Headquarters, Fort Campbell, Kentucky., which would subsequently deploy 6 months sooner than previously planned, and the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, Fort Drum, New York.
