The US Army formally stood up a brand new command on Friday to oversee the Army’s actions in the Western Hemisphere in the newest sign of accelerating give attention to homeland defense.
The new command, known as Army Western Hemisphere Command, will mix US Army Forces Command, US Army North, and US Army South into one group, based mostly at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The mixed group will oversee Army operations like that on the southern border, catastrophe response, and Army mobilizations in assist of federal legislation enforcement across the nation.
“The Army is transforming because our adversaries increasingly aim to exploit vulnerabilities in the homeland and throughout North, Central, and Southern America,” Gen. Joseph Ryan, the commander of the brand new Western Hemisphere Command, stated at a ceremony marking the activation of the command Friday. “We have allowed this insidious activity to continue for too long, and we have not addressed it effectively.”
Army management stated in May that it might merge the commands in a letter to the force following a directive from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who stated the Army “must prioritize defending our homeland and deterring China.”
The ceremony on Friday comes simply hours after the White House launched the new National Security Strategy, which directs a “readjustment” of the US navy’s presence in the Western Hemisphere.
The new technique requires “[t]argeted deployments to secure the border and defeat cartels, including where necessary the use of lethal force to replace the failed law enforcement-only strategy of the last several decades.”
The US navy turned more and more concerned in the border mission earlier this 12 months when the Trump administration surged extra troops to the border and started establishing “national defense areas” the place US forces may detain migrants. While the US navy is prohibited legally from conducting legislation enforcement actions, the navy zones are handled as extensions of US navy bases, permitting service members to quickly detain migrants earlier than passing them off to native legislation enforcement.
National Guard forces have additionally been mobilized at a number of areas to defend federal legislation enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
The consolidation to Western Hemisphere Command won’t occur in a single day; Col. Mike Burns, spokesperson for the brand new command, advised reporters this week the headquarters at Fort Bragg is anticipated to be totally operational by June 2026, after which US Army North and Army South shall be formally shut down.
“This reform modernizes the Army’s command structure, reduces overhead, eliminates duplication, and puts more soldiers in operational formations where they can directly contribute to warfighting readiness,” Burns stated. “It’s based on threat, strategy, and the need to treat the homeland as a priority theater.”
Both Army North and Army South are at present headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio-Sam Houston, Texas. Most navy and civilian personnel for the 2 commands will move to Fort Bragg over the subsequent two years, Burns stated, whereas some stay in the San Antonio space for particular assignments like that with Brooke Army Medical Center.