MANNHEIM, Germany –
The Army’s top two uniformed leaders in budget and fiscal management conducted a site visit to the Coleman Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 worksite in Mannheim recently to see firsthand the worksite’s capabilities and better understand the impacts funding will have on the APS-2 site’s infrastructure improvement plans.
Army Lt. Gen. Paul Chamberlain, the military deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Management and Comptroller, and Sgt. Maj. Terry Anderson, the Army Financial Management and Comptroller sergeant major, met with the 405th Army Field Support Brigade’s command team, Col. Michael Liles and Command Sgt. Maj. Terrell Brisentine, and the team from Coleman, April 2 at the site.
In August 2021, U.S. Army Europe and Africa announced that it will retain the Coleman worksite, which was previously scheduled to be returned to the German government. Since then, much work has gone into site infrastructure upgrade planning and improvements.
As recently as January, the director of Global Posture Policy from the Office of the Secretary of Defense visited Coleman to get a firsthand look at the site’s future infrastructure, and even more recently the lord mayor of Mannheim visited the site to learn how the infrastructure upgrades will impact the local economy, environment and area.
During their site visit, Chamberlain and Anderson were briefed on the strategic importance of the APS-2 program at Coleman and the impacts limited funding would have on the mission there. Liles talked about the capabilities and breadth of the 405th AFSB’s APS-2 mission in support of U.S. Army Europe and Africa and highlighted the positive impacts the Coleman worksite APS-2 fleet has had on NATO allies and partner nations since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. This includes about $16.5 million in parts and materials to support combat platforms and war efforts.
As part of their site visit, Chamberlain and Anderson were also provided a tour of the worksite, which included an overview of the facilities, planned infrastructure upgrades and impacts on storing APS-2 equipment outdoors at the site. This discussion was led by Liles and Herbert Gately, the director of the Coleman APS-2 worksite.
At the conclusion of their site visit, Chamberlain and Anderson recognized John Glasgow, the Army Field Support Battalion-Poland deputy to the commander, and Maj. Steven Waugh, the AFSBn-Poland support operations officer, for their leadership and impact on the overall success of the strategic mission placed on the Coleman team and worksite over the past two years.
As part of the 405th AFSB’s regional alignment and transformation initiative, later this year Army AFSBn-Poland will move operations from Coleman to Powidz, Poland, where the newly completed Long Term Equipment Storage and Maintenance-Complex is located, and Army Field Support Battalion-Germany will assume mission command of the Coleman APS-2 worksite.
The Coleman worksite and the LTESM-C in Poland are two of six APS-2 sites in Europe under the mission command of the 405th AFSB. Besides Mannheim and Powidz, there are APS-2 sites in Dülmen, Germany; Eygelshoven, Netherlands; Zutendaal, Belgium; and Livorno, Italy.
Additional APS-2 sites in Europe’s High North amid Finland and Sweden officially joining NATO are also under consideration, according to Lt. Gen. Christopher Mohan, who is currently serving as the commanding general of U.S. Army Materiel Command.
“The addition of the NATO partners changes the security landscape and our responsibilities as part of NATO,” Mohan said during the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium, March 27. “We’ve incorporated two new NATO allies. So what does that mean for the High North in particular, and is there an expansion on the horizon for the High North from an APS standpoint?”
The 405th AFSB’s APS-2 program provides turn-key power projection packages ready to deploy at a moment’s notice while helping to reduce the amount of equipment needed from the deploying forces’ home stations. APS-2 sites help reduce deployment timelines, improve deterrence capabilities and provide additional combat power for contingency operations. APS-2 equipment may also be drawn for use in training and exercises.
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 at www.afsbeurope.army.mil and the official Facebook site at www.facebook.com/405thAFSB.