A soldier with the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team stands next to a Javelin missile loaded onto a Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle before a live-fire training exercise in Fort Carson, Colorado, April 28. AFP-Yonhap

A new U.S. rotational force employing the Stryker armored fighting vehicle will begin arriving in South Korea later this week for a nine-month security mission, the U.S. military said Friday.

The 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) will start coming here on Saturday to replace the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) that will return to the United States, according to the Eighth U.S. Army.

The replacement marks a shift from an ABCT construct to a SBCT one as Seoul and Washington are striving to sharpen deterrence against evolving North Korean military threats.

The ABCT operates M-1 Abrams tanks and M-2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, while the Stryker team uses the eight-wheeled armored vehicle, which the U.S. military says combines firepower, battlefield mobility, survivability and versatility with reduced logistics requirements.

"SBCTs provide the Korean theater of operations an expeditionary, combined arms force organized around mounted Infantry," Lt. Col. Neil Penttila, spokesperson for the Eighth Army, was quoted as saying in a press release. "They operate effectively in diverse terrain and weather conditions, while enabling greater mobility and concentration of combat power."

Existing ABCT equipment will remain in South Korea, with most of them placed in ready storage, it added. (Yonhap)