The armored fleet at Fort Carson will be departing this fall, as the 4th Infantry Division swaps tanks for brand new Strykers.

The change will mark a shift in identity for Fort Carson, which will house only Stryker brigades going forward as 3rd Armored Brigade gives up its tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles for the eight-wheeled vehicles that carry infantrymen into battle.

The 3rd Armored Brigade was outfitted with tanks when it arrived at Fort Carson in 1970 and served throughout the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with the heavy vehicles that gave the unit its nickname, Iron Brigade.

In relatively recent history, 3rd Brigade was deployed four times in seven years to Iraq starting in 2003. A few dozen soldiers stayed through all the deployments and in 2009 were hoping for an end to the conflict, The Gazette reported at the time.

The unit’s last deployment to the Middle East during those conflicts was in 2019 to Kuwait to support the fight against the Islamic State, according to Fort Carson’s history of the unit.

The unit has since served in Eastern Europe providing deterrence against Russian aggression.

The coming focus on Strykers at Fort Carson will streamline training and maintenance and ensure commanders can share ideas, said Col. Nick Sinclair, who leads 3rd Armored Brigade and will oversee the transition. Some, but not all, of the equipment and specialized personnel will flow to Fort Hood, in Texas, a base set to gain an armored brigade. 

There’s “a lot of excitement within the Iron Brigade with this conversion,” Sinclair said.

The unit will also trade in its Iron Brigade name, with the new moniker set to be unveiled at the end of the month, Sinclair said, as the brigade caps off its last training exercise with its armored vehicles at the National Training Center alongside the two existing Stryker brigades at Fort Carson. 

The training focused on testing new communications technology that will be used across the Army is the culmination of many months of work between Fort Carson soldiers and the companies that are developing the modern system. Anduril Industries is leading the work to develop the system called  Next Generation Command and Control that is helping to integrate communications systems and ensure communications can survive an electromagnetic attack. 

Lt. Gen. Michael McCurry, commanding general of the Army Futures and Concepts Command, who is overseeing the training, said in a news release he expected the training would test 100 emerging technologies.

It’s important for armored vehicles to take part in the tests before the new communications system is distributed across the other 10 armored brigades in the Army, Sinclair said. 

Once training is complete, soldiers will start sending in vehicles to get refurbished and new Strykers will arrive, Sinclair said. 

The armored fleet includes fighting vehicles and their necessary support vehicles, including equipment like the M888 Recovery Vehicle, essentially an armored crane used to move combat vehicles.

The brigade will also get restructured as part of the transition because the 4th Squadron 10 Cavalry Regiment will be deactivating, reducing the brigade from five battalions to four.

The Army is restructuring cavalry regiments dedicated to reconnaissance as it prepares for large-scale war.

The transition away from armored vehicles is not expected to impact training because once soldiers return from the National Training Center, the cycle starts over and the focus will be on individual and small-unit exercises, Sinclair said. 

However, the base could see a larger outflow of soldiers leaving, as those with specialized skills related to armored vehicles are reassigned and more new young infantrymen arrive, he said. 

“The biggest tranches are going to move out over the next year, and likewise, we hope to be investing in infantry soldiers over the next year as well,” he said. 

Sinclair and his team will stay in their positions over the next year to oversee the transition, he said.