Army activates sustainment brigade as part of Pacific restructuring

The Army shuttered one Okinawa-based support unit and reactivated a larger one, part of the broader effort to prepare for a potential conflict in the expansive theater.

The closure of the 10th Support Group and the reestablishment of the 45th Sustainment Brigade will give the service a brigade-level headquarters that can better command and control sustainment capabilities in the region, said Col. Dennis Han, who leads the new unit. It will also mean a “small growth” in the number of soldiers at Torii Station, but no additional infrastructure at the base on Okinawa’s west coast.

While the 10th Support Group was focused on providing logistics support within Japan, the change to 45th Sustainment Brigade broadens the aperture to the entire Pacific.

The Army is “heavily investing in the emerging requirements here,” and this is part of the service’s response, Han said. “Over the next couple of years, we’re looking forward to building our staff, building our capacity to be prepared for whatever comes our way.”

Maj. Gen. James Dooghan, commander of U.S. Army Japan, said in a release that the ceremony was "more than casing one set of colors and uncasing another. ... It is about continuity and transformation, ensuring our Army is positioned to sustain the force wherever and whenever it is needed." 

Sustainment is a perennial topic at regional conferences. At AUSA’s Land Forces Pacific in May, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command leader Adm. Samuel Paparo noted that the Army “delivers foundational sustainment capabilities to the entire joint force. And I’m fervent in my belief that nobody knows or senses or feels viscerally the scale of sustainment than our nation’s Army.”