Soldiers salute during the activation ceremony for the 3rd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment at Fort Drum, N.Y., Oct. 17, 2025. The unit falls under the operational control of the 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force, part of the 56th Multi-Domain Command-Europe, but the Army has yet to announce when soldiers will be sent on missions to Europe. (Abigail Stewart/U.S. Army)

A new U.S.-based artillery unit intended to bring more firepower to Europe is up and running, but plans for deploying troops and missiles to the Continent are undisclosed.

The 3rd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment, based out of Fort Drum, N.Y., is part of the Army’s efforts to expand long-range strike capabilities in Europe, the 56th Multi-Domain Command (Europe) said in a statement Monday.

But while the unit was activated in October, the Army has yet to announce when soldiers will be sent on missions to Europe.

“The activation is historically significant because it reintroduces a modern long-range precision fires battalion and contributes to the Army’s evolving future force design,” the statement said. “For the (European) theater, it means greater range, more flexible options and additional tools to deter or respond in a rapidly changing security environment.”

The unit’s formation is linked to a 2024 decision by former President Joe Biden’s administration that called for rotating long-range fires assets to Germany in 2026 as a precursor to the permanent basing of those forces in Europe.

“When fully developed, these conventional long-range fires units will include SM-6 and Tomahawk (missiles), and developmental hypersonic weapons, which have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe,” the White House statement in July 2024 said.

U.S. Army Europe and Africa didn’t immediately respond Monday to a request for details about when potential troop and missile deployments could start.

While the new unit is aligned with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, it falls under the operational control of the Germany-based 56th Multi-Domain Command’s 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force.

Soldiers from the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force and Navy personnel successfully launched a Tomahawk missile from the Army’s prototype Mid-Range Capability system at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., in 2023. (Darrell Ames/U.S. Army)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters during a news conference in Berlin on Thursday that he was still under the impression that the Army would move forward with the initiative, which as originally conceived called for bringing Tomahawk missiles to Germany next year.

Still, adding long-range fires capabilities in Europe could conflict with current Pentagon strategy, which aims to have Europe shoulder a larger share of the conventional security burden so more capabilities can be shifted to the Pacific.

The Defense Department’s top policy chief, Elbridge Colby, before taking up his Pentagon post earlier this year, voiced concerns about the idea of sending more long-range artillery to Europe.

After the Biden administration’s 2024 decision was announced, Colby, a longtime China hawk, said the concept indicated that Biden was “unwisely prioritizing Europe over the Asia-Pacific.”

“That’s clear as day now,” Colby said in a statement at the time. “So let’s argue now about where we should prioritize our scarce resources.”

In Europe, a new U.S. national security strategy that prioritizes security in the Americas and the Pacific has fueled concerns that the Defense Department could be planning to move assets out of Europe.

A Pentagon decision in October to end the rotation of an Army brigade to Romania was viewed by some NATO observers as a sign of more cuts to come.  

In a separate talk with German officials on Saturday, Merz said Europe must prepare for a new era in which the United States can’t be counted on to ensure stability on the Continent.

“The decades of the Pax Americana are largely over for us in Europe,” Merz said, according to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. “And for us in Germany as well. It no longer exists as we know it. And nostalgia won’t change that.”

“The Americans are now very, very ruthlessly pursuing their own interests,” he added. “And this cannot have a different answer than that it is time that we also pursue our own interests.”