Department of Defense Announces Tour Length Change for the Middle East
June 2, 2020

The Department of Defense has changed the current overseas tour length for DoD military personnel under COCOM (Title 10) authority assigned to permanent duty locations in the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq.

As a byproduct of the Department’s continuous reassessment of personnel policies worldwide, DoD military personnel will gradually transition to 12-month unaccompanied tours for designated duty stations in the region.

This change will not affect the number or readiness of U.S. forces in the region.

DoD military personnel currently assigned to the region will finish out their accompanied tours and cycle out gradually over the course of two years. Those who have orders to prepare to move up to 30 days from today will be allowed to PCS to their accompanied tour, though all accompanied tours must be complete by August 31, 2022.

While this change applies to a number of countries in the region, only Bahrain and Qatar currently host military families under COCOM authority.

The Department remains committed to supporting our partners in this vital region.

The policy can be found here and a corresponding fact sheet can be found here.