The 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division cases its colors on May 1, 2026, at Fort Hood, Texas, marking the unit’s upcoming rotation to Europe. On Wednesday, May 13, 2026, the deployment was put on hold. (Michelle Lessard-Terry/U.S. Army)
STUTTGART, Germany — The deployment of a U.S. Army tank brigade to Europe already underway has been put on hold, a U.S. defense official confirmed Wednesday.
The 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division cased its colors at Fort Hood, Texas, a week ago, marking the start of a nine-month mission aimed at deterring Russian aggression in Europe.
Nearly 4,000 soldiers from the “Black Jack” brigade were slated to take up positions in Poland and other parts of NATO’s eastern flank.
However, the plan has been halted even as most of the unit’s gear already has been shipped to Europe, said the defense official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Military Times also reported the decision.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the hold means the entire deployment will be canceled or potentially restarted at some point.
Navy Cmdr. Javan Rasnake, a Pentagon spokesman, said that the Defense Department had “nothing to announce on this at this time.”
The shakeup comes as the military recently announced plans to withdraw about 5,000 troops from Germany.
There have been few details about how the plan will be executed, but the Pentagon said it will be completed within six to 12 months.
There has been widespread speculation that the U.S. Army 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Vilseck could be among the units affected. Some media reports, citing unnamed defense officials, have said that a brigade and a long-range fires unit expected to be deployed to Germany later this year are the units involved.
If accurate, that would have implications for the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, the lone brigade-sized element in Germany.
However, there could be alternative approaches depending on how the Pentagon wants to get to its 5,000 troop threshold.
The easiest method would be to reduce rotational missions to Europe. While most of those forces operate outside of Germany, many of the brigades that have rotated to the Continent have carried out parts of their mission in Germany.
If that were the case for the Black Jack brigade, some of those numbers could theoretically count toward the 5,000 troop tally.
Since Russia’s full-scale 2022 attack on Ukraine, U.S. force numbers have increased. Today, there are about 85,000 troops overall with roughly 15,000-20,000 serving on temporary assignments as forces rotate back and forth from the United States.
In October, the Pentagon began scaling back some rotations when it ended a 101st Airborne Division 2nd Brigade’s rotational mission in Romania and other parts of NATO’s eastern flank.
If the Black Jack brigade’s planned deployment is ended permanently, along with follow-on rotations, that would bring troop levels in Europe to roughly where they were before the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalated into all-out war more than four years ago.