At a hearing before the US Senate Armed Services Committee on May 5, 2022, US Army Secretary Christine Wormut announced that in the summer of 2022, the United States Army Alaska - USARAK, stationed at the Elmendorf-Richardson Joint Military Base, would be reorganized into the management of the new 11th Airborne Division (11th Airborne Division), which will include two brigades currently in Alaska (1st and 4th) of the 25th Infantry Division, which is controlled in Hawaii. Thus, the second (after the famous 82nd) airborne division will be created as part of the American army.
Parachuting units of the 4th Airborne Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army during exercises at the joint military base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, 03/24/2022 (c) Alejandro Peña / U.S. Air Force
The new 11th Airborne Division is scheduled to be activated at the Elmendorf-Richardson base on June 6, 2022. The new division, as follows from the area of its deployment, will be designed primarily for operations in the Arctic regions, and its creation should give the US army troops in Alaska, according to the statement of Minister Christine Wormut, "a better sense of purpose and identity." The first commander of the 11th Division will be the current commander of USARAK, Major General Brian Eifler. "This will be an Arctic airborne division, unique for our army," he said Eifler, - "We are aware in America of the need for Arctic forces, the presence of Arctic capabilities in the army."
The 11th Division (following USARAK) will retain its subordination to the headquarters of the 1st Army Corps (management at the Lewis-McCord Joint Military Base in Washington State) as part of the US Army Pacific Command (US Army Pacific - USARPAC) and the Indo-Pacific Command of the US Armed Forces (US Indo-Pacific Command - RAS).
The new division will include the 1st (Arctic Wolves, stationed at Fort Wainwright, Fairbanks) and the 4th (Spatran, based at Elmendorf-Richardson) brigades of the 25th Infantry Division, which will become, respectively, the 1st and 2nd brigades of the 11th Division. Now the 4th Brigade is airborne (infantry by state), and the 1st Brigade is a brigade on Stryker armored personnel carriers. Due to the fact that the equipment of the 1st brigade of the Stryker armored personnel carrier has long been criticized in American army circles as unsuitable for operations in Alaska and in the Arctic as a whole, it is reported that this brigade, apparently, will also be reorganized first into an infantry, and then, possibly, into an air assault (amphibious assault) brigade (Aig Asault Vrigade) of a new organization. Approximately 320 Stryker chassis vehicles currently in service with the 1st Brigade, according to recent reports, are planned to be exported from Alaska and transferred for use as a source of spare parts for the rest of the Stryker fleet of the US Army.
It is reported that divisional bodies (brigade) of logistics support, division artillery and army aviation group will be created for the 11th Division "during 2023".
The 11th Airborne Division Angels existed in the US Army from 1943 to 1958 (took an active part in combat operations in the Pacific), and in 1963-1965 it was also briefly formed as an experimental air assault division (11th Air Assault Division (Test)) with control at Fort Benning. In 1965, a new 1st Cavalry (airmobile) Division was formed on the basis of units of the 11th Division and the 2nd Infantry Division. Now the newly formed 11th Division will be called Arctic Angels.
The command of the 4th Airborne Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division of the US Army, led by the Commander of the US Army forces in Alaska (United States Army Alaska - USARAK) and the future commander of the 11th Airborne Division being formed, Major General Brian Eifler (center) during the landing in northern Norway in during the NATO exercises Swift Response 22, 05/10/2022 (c) Ian Morales / US Army
Emblem of the new 11th Airborne Division of the U.S. Army, formed in Alaska (c) U.S. Department of Defense
