More than 300 Strykers belonging to 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division begin arriving in Afghanistan this week.

Almost 9,500 tons of vehicles and support equipment will arrive in the country over the next two months, according to an Air Force press release. Most will arrive on C-17 Globemaster III cargo jets.

Other equipment will be flown by commercial An-124 Ruslan jets. The airlift effort is expected to last about two months.

Two Strykers can fit inside each C-17. The vehicles were loaded onto a ship from the Port of Tacoma last month and shipped to a staging area at a Pacific Ocean island. The airlift will take them to southern Afghanistan, where 5th Brigade will deploy later this summer.

It’s the first time Strykers have been deployed on this scale in Afghanistan, though members of 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment have used the eight-wheeled vehicle in the country. The Army boasts seven Stryker brigades – including three at Fort Lewis – but all previous combat experience has been in Iraq.