US Army activates prepositioned stocks in Europe

The US Army announced on 1 March that its 405th Army Field Support Brigade (AFSB) has fully activated its Army Prepositioned Stock-2 (APS-2) sites, which are located in Europe.

All four battalions assigned to the 405th AFSB prepared and pushed out more than 600 vehicles and equipment pieces from their respective APS-2 sites during the second week of February.

Vehicles and other equipment included M1 Abrams, M2 Bradleys, JLTVs, HEMTTs, HMMWVs, Paladins, generators, palletised load systems and load handling systems, among others.

This equipment is now being loaded onto military and commercial line-haul trucks to be delivered to Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany, the US Army noted.

This is the first time in the AFSB’s APS-2 programme history it is tasked with outfitting an entire armoured brigade combat team being deployed to Europe from the US.

The APS programme strategically prepositions vital war stocks in climate-controlled facilities worldwide in order to reduce the deployment response times and rapidly project power. Those stocks are available to support all combatant missions in contingencies, major exercises and humanitarian missions.

Apart from the APS-2 located in Europe, the US Army also has the APS-1 (in the US), APS-3 (Afloat), APS-4 (Northeast Asia) and APS-5 (Southwest Asia).