About 100 soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division headquarters will deploy to Europe early next year to support Operation Atlantic Resolve, officials announced Wednesday.

Once overseas, the soldiers will provide command and control for Army forces participating in Atlantic Resolve, which was launched this year in light of Russian intervention and aggression in Ukraine. Operation Atlantic Resolve is meant to reassure Eastern European NATO members that the alliance will defend them. The mission is expected to continue for the foreseeable future, officials have said.

The 4th Infantry Division soldiers also will train alongside NATO allies and partner nations in the region to build interoperability, partner capacity and relationships.

Soldiers from 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, of Fort Hood, Texas, are currently deployed to support Operation Atlantic Resolve in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. They replaced soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team of Vicenza, Italy.

The 4th Infantry Division headquarters, of Fort Carson, Colorado, in September was regionally aligned with European Command. It is the first division-level headquarters to deploy to Europe as part of the Army's regionally-aligned forces concept, which aims to commit troops to specific parts of the world to support the geographic combatant commanders.

The division headquarters has already sent soldiers to Europe as part of its regional alignment. In October, about 100 soldiers traveled to Germany for Combined Resolve III, a multi-national exercise.

Division officials have said they expect to be aligned with EUCOM for at least a year, possibly two years.

Michelle Tan is the editor of Army Times and Air Force Times. She has covered the military for Military Times since 2005, and has embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Haiti, Gabon and the Horn of Africa.

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