**The US Army will “temporarily” increase by 22,000 soldiers for the next three years, Defence Secretary Robert Gates has announced.**The troop increase is intended to ease the strain of America’s deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr Gates said.
The troop increase would raise the total number of active US soldiers from 547,000 to 569,000.
Mr Gates’s defence budget, unveiled in April, set aside $11bn (£6.7bn) to fund increases in military personnel.
“The Army faces a period where its ability to deploy combat brigades at acceptable fill rates is at risk,” Mr Gates said.
“This is a temporary challenge which will peak in the coming year and abate over the course of the next three years.”