Soldiers and equipment of a US armored brigade combat team have started to arrive in South Korea for a rotational deployment, the US military said Thursday.

Tracked vehicles and other equipment of the Raider Brigade, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division, began arriving in the southeastern city of Busan from Fort Stewart, Georgia, according to the Eighth Army.

The arriving brigade is replacing the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division on a nine-month mission to support the 2nd Infantry Division, South Korea-US Combined Division and the Eighth Army, it said.

"The introduction of off-peninsula units to the Korean Theater of Operations exposes more US Soldiers to the operating environment in the Republic of Korea, the region, expands and enhances the partnership between the two Armies and supports the ironclad ROK-US Alliance," it said in a release.

All soldiers upon arrival will be tested for the new coronavirus and put into 14-day mandatory quarantine.

The Raider Brigade is the ninth rotational armored brigade to serve in South Korea.

About 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea to deter North Korean aggression, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the divided peninsula still technically at war. (Yonhap)