[1] Area Support Group Black Sea is part of 21st Theater Sustainment Command,[2] and provides base operations support and services for military personnel, civilians, and contractors in the Black Sea region,[3] enabling readiness of permanent, rotational, allied, and expeditionary forces in Romania and Bulgaria.

[6] These are sovereign host nation bases with co-located U.S. funded constructed facilities that the U.S. military uses on a consignment basis as stipulated in the Defense Cooperation Agreement signed by the governments involved.

The Army component of EETAF would be a Brigade Combat Team (BCT) rotating on a four to six-month basis from the continental U.S. or Europe.

Phase II would begin with the first "Proof of Principle" battalion-sized rotation in June 2007 and eventually followed by a full brigade combat team as the facilities, training areas and agreements were established and validated.

The 2007 Phase I "Proof of Principle" and the 2008 Rotation were successful in validating the EETAF concept and provided key insights for further development.

Key construction tasks identified for accomplishment in Phase I were not completed and insights were gained indicating significant improvement and expansion of facilities and training areas was required to meet the original brigade-sized concept; but, the plans had been developed, a timeline established, and funding allocated to complete construction of the identified Permanent Forward Operating Site (PFOS) in Romania and, later, one in Bulgaria.

Similar facilities in Novo Selo Training Area, Bulgaria were also constructed to support the 2009 staff and rotational units there.

The new facilities in both Bulgaria and Romania include barracks, battalion and brigade headquarters, chapel, dining facility, community center, fire and military police stations, first-aid station, retail or department store, post office, movie theater, fitness center, maintenance shops, showers and restrooms, and other support buildings for training and storage.

After the Proof of Principle exercise was completed, U.S. Army Europe issued an order for JTF-East to begin a period of "warm-basing" at the Mihail Kogălniceanu Airfield, Romania.

The driver for this decision was the absence of any available rotational forces to occupy JTF-East due to the 2007 "surge" in Iraq, which significantly increased the number of troops deployed there.

This decision to go to a warm-basing status was reinforced by the perception that the impact on rotational force availability would be temporary and that construction of the PFOS was not yet complete.

As operational impacts grew clearer, in February 2008, USAREUR announced that the originally intended brigade-sized rotation would be downsized to a battalion for 2008.

In addition, staff elements are integrated at varying degrees for the duration of the operation to foster interoperability and working relationships.

Commanded by Col. Gary R. Russ, the 2009 TF-East rotation in both Romania and Bulgaria included, for the first time, inclusion of approximately 30 Stryker combat vehicles in each country along with about the same number of Romanian and Bulgarian armored personnel carriers.

U.S. units training in Bulgaria included over 1,400 personnel including soldiers from the Tennessee Army National Guard's 1-181st Field Artillery Battalion out of Chattanooga, Tenn.; 2nd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, from Vilseck, Germany, and the Tennessee Army National Guard's 117th Military Police Battalion.

[8] Other rotational activities included humanitarian civic assistance construction missions conducted by U.S. Navy Seabees in partnership with Romanian and Bulgarian Land Force engineers.

The drugs were specifically purchased to target the main health issues identified by the HCA medical team during the screenings.

The year 2009 marked the third rotation of JTF-E/TF-East and it continued to be one of the USAREUR commander's strategic priorities playing a key role in EUCOM's theater security cooperation program.

Building interoperability, professional and personal relationships are essential for the success of today and tomorrow's coalitions and TF-East was a unique tool to help accomplish that.

[9] On 1 October 2016, the Headquarters, Black Sea Area Support Team was established to provide O6 level command authority over the mission.

[12] In 2019, the Area Support Group Black Sea (ASG-BS) began to oversee operations in Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.