EYGELSHOVEN, Netherlands — The Eygelshoven Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 worksite in the Netherlands is one of the most active APS worksites on the planet, but recently activity levels at the site reached new highs.
On the day DEFENDER 25 officially kicked off, May 11, 2025, the 59th Chemical Company (Hazardous Response), touched down in Europe. The very next day the Soldiers from Fort Drum, New York, arrived at the Eygelshoven APS-2 worksite, and Army Field Support Battalion-Benelux began the process of issuing them more than 200 APS-2 major end items, including several M1135 Stryker NBC reconnaissance vehicles and more.
Normally, the issue of equipment is conducted at equipment configuration and hand-off areas forward, but the chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense specialists from the 48th Chemical Brigade’s 59th Chem. Co. were the first Soldiers in history to be issued APS-2 tactical vehicles and gear directly from AFSBn-Benelux at the Eygelshoven site for DEFENDER.
Army Lt. Col. George Horne, the commander of AFSBn-Benelux, said the mission serves as a proof of principle. Issuing APS-2 equipment from the worksite versus forward demonstrates additional capability, and more importantly, his battalion’s ability to facilitate a mass deployment directly from the site.
“Being able to issue from the APS site gives an additional flexibility to the theater. With this, we can now say, okay, we're able to receive a second echelon here at the APS site while not delaying any of the combat actions happening closer to the east, for example,” Horne said.
“It's one thing to have the APS equipment sitting in the warehouses going through the maintenance cycles. It's a whole other thing to show the practical application of theater strategic support, to show our ability to receive Soldiers from the opposite side of the world and put them into the fight quickly and efficiently while supporting the combatant commander,” said Horne.
Army 1st Lt. Logan Liddington is the executive officer for the 59th Chem. Co. but for the APS-2 issue mission at Eygelshoven he was the gaining tactical unit’s officer in charge. Liddington said initially his team of CBRN Soldiers were extremely busy doing 100 percent inventories and preventative maintenance checks and services on all the APS-2 gear before signing for the equipment and taking responsibility.
“This is the first time we are being issued APS. It’s a lot easier and quicker to send the U.S. Soldiers overseas and receive the equipment here, so it gives us an additional option when rapidly deploying forward to the European theater,” said Liddington. “We landed yesterday, we’re here on site for a couple of days inspecting and signing for all the equipment, and we expect to receive the equipment at the exercise location in less than a week."
In comparison, Liddington said he was recently deployed to Romania with 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, with all of their organic equipment and vehicles in tow. He said, in total, it took about three months to move all that equipment from Fort Drum to eastern Europe.
Next, the chemical company’s worth of APS-2 will be line-haul transported to northeastern Greece where the Soldiers from the 59th Chem. Co. will employ the CBRN equipment at various locations during DEFENDER 25’s Immediate Response exercise.
In addition to the Stryker NBC reconnaissance vehicles, the APS-2 CBRN equipment the 59th Chem. Co. received includes several Humvees and 5-ton trucks, about 20 light medium tactical vehicles with trailers and a wrecker. It also includes dozens of radios and receivers/transmitters as well as decontamination equipment, tools and test kits, containers, generators and more.
AFSBn-Benelux is one of four battalions under the command and control of the 405th Army Field Support Brigade. AFSBn-Benelux is responsible for the Eygelshoven APS-2 worksite and the APS-2 worksite in Zutendaal, Belgium.
The 405th AFSB’s APS-2 program enhances U.S. Army Europe and Africa’s capability to support the warfighter while simultaneously promoting stability and security in the region. Able to provide turn-key power projection packages ready to employ at a moment’s notice, the APS-2 program is a key component of U.S. Army Europe and Africa’s power projection and warfighter readiness missions.
The 405th AFSB is assigned to U.S. Army Sustainment Command and headquartered in Kaiserslautern, Germany. The brigade provides materiel enterprise support to U.S. forces throughout Europe and Africa — providing theater sustainment logistics; synchronizing acquisition, logistics and technology; and leveraging U.S. Army Materiel Command’s materiel enterprise to support joint forces. For more information on the 405th AFSB, visit the official website and the official Facebook site.
DEFENDER 25 is the largest series of U.S. Army exercises in Europe involving about 23,000 troops from the U.S., Allied and partner nations. DEFENDER 25 runs from May 11 to June 24, 2025, in 15 countries across Europe. The large-scale exercises and deployment rehearsals conducted during DEFENDER 25 converge U.S. and NATO systems, capabilities and tactics supporting U.S. strategic initiatives and NATO regional plans to dominate multi-domain environments in a crisis. View more DEFENDER 25 media products on DVIDS, and visit the U.S. Army Europe and Africa website on DEFENDER 25 to learn more.
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