US Army reactivates modified 11th Airborne Division in Alaska and equip it with Arctic CATV vehicles.

According to Corey Dickstein in Star and Stripes, U.S. Army soldiers in Alaska were issued new unit patches on Monday, June 6, as the long-dormant 11th Airborne Division was reactivated - but in a new form - in the new Arctic-focused strategy decided in January 2021.
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BAE Systems is one of the two contenders with its Beowulf to supply Cold-Weather All-Terrain Vehicles (CATV) as the M973 Small Unit Support Vehicle’s successor for U.S. Army’s Arctic operations (Picture source: BAE Systems)

As reported by Corey Dickstein, the former Army Alaska headquarters and the Alaska-based 1st and 4th Brigade Combat Teams of the 25th Infantry Division were rolled into the 11th Airborne Division, which Army officials said would adopt the moniker “Arctic Angels”. The new division will focus almost solely on Arctic and cold-weather combat operations amid the Pentagon’s renewed interest in challenging Russian and Chinese ambitions in the far North. The Pentagon had been largely ignoring the region for decades

Gen. James McConville, the Army chief of staff, said at Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks: “Arctic warfighting is just what [the units] will do, and that’s the identity we’re looking to build with the 11th Airborne Division.”

Pentagon leaders in recent years have said its troops must be prepared for potential conflict in the Arctic as near-peer competitors, including Russia and China, increase operations in the natural resource-rich region where melting ice has opened new sea routes.

The ceremony at Fort Wainwright also marked a major change for the division’s 1st Brigade, Corey Dickstein reports. The unit, previously known as 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, will be converted into a light infantry unit – the 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 11th Airborne Division – whose size will also ”shrink”. Hence, it is replacing its Strykers with lighter all-terrain vehicles, namely amphibious tracked twin-module Cold-Weather All-Terrain Vehicles (CATV).

The official insignia for the 11th Airborne Division. The Army will re-designate U.S. Army Alaska and two Alaska-based brigade combat teams in summer 2022 as the 11th Airborne Division Headquarters and the 1st and 2nd Brigade Combat Teams, 11th Airborne Division. (Picture source: Benjamin Wilson/U.S. Army)