US soldiers sent to Iraq and Afghanistan will be required to serve up to 15 months in country instead of the current one year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said this evening.
"Effective immediately, active Army units now in Central Command area of responsibility and those headed there will deploy for not more than 15 months and will return home to home station for not less than 12 months," Gates told a news conference.
The decision was the latest move by the Pentagon to enable a stretched US military to maintain higher levels of forces in Iraq as part of a plan to stabilize the country announced by President George W. Bush in January.
As part of Bush's plan, the US military is in the process of boosting its force in Iraq by 28,000 combat and support troops. There are currently some 145,000 US troops in Iraq, which is supervised by the military's Central Command.
The Pentagon's goal for active duty troops is that they spend two years at home for every year deployed, but it has not been able to meet that target in recent years due to the strain caused by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
At the moment, Army units average about a year at home for every year deployed, Pentagon officials say.
But in a further sign of the strain on the military, the Pentagon said last week that two Army units, with a total of about 4,500 troops, would return to Iraq before they had spent a year at home.