{"id":11932,"date":"2022-04-19T20:32:29","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T20:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/04\/19\/national-guard-discussing-possible-deployments-to-eastern-europe\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:26:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:26:26","slug":"national-guard-discussing-possible-deployments-to-eastern-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2022\/04\/19\/national-guard-discussing-possible-deployments-to-eastern-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"National Guard discussing possible deployments to Eastern Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine expected to last months, thousands of troops deployed in February and March have been extended<\/a> past their initial 90-day commitments, calling into question how long these deployments will last, and how rotations might continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To that end, the National Guard has been discussing the possibility that it\u2019s part-time troops will be called up to fill in, the chief of the National Guard Bureau told Military Times on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo we, last week, had a chance to visit with all the adjutants general, and we don\u2019t have any information right now. But as always, we never want to surprise anybody,\u201d Army Gen. Dan Hokanson said at a Foundation for Defense of Democracies event. \u201cAnd so we always try and think of that \u2015 what are those potential possibilities? Because we can always plan, but if we don\u2019t plan, we can\u2019t adjust from there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are roughly 2,000 Guard troops already in Europe, Hokanson said, many of whom already had rotations scheduled before war broke out. One group, from the Florida National Guard, had been training Ukrainian troops in that country and have since relocated to Poland<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are working very closely with the Army and the Air Force to identify if there\u2019s going to be rotational plans where the Guard will fit in, so that we can identify those units as soon as possible,\u201d Hokanson said. \u201cThe best thing we can ask for is its heads up so we can let the units [know], and they\u2019ll be ready to go whenever they\u2019re asked to head off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guard and Reserve units aren\u2019t part of the conversation right now, a Pentagon spokesman told Military Times on Tuesday, but Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is reviewing posture levels regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\t