Today the installation is one of the largest military posts in the U.S. with about 1, 177,000 acres. Because it is almost the size of Rhode Island, the post is the ideal size to conduct live-fire exercises with almost any military weapon in the government’s arsenal.
Fort Bliss has long been recognized as home of the Army Air Defense Artillery Center, with the Patriot missile as the primary weapon.
In 2005, the U.S. Department of Defense unveiled the Base Realignment and Closure report which outlined relocating the 1st Armored Division and various units from Germany and Korea to Fort Bliss and moving the air defense artillery units to Fort Sill, Okla. As a result Fort Bliss will grow to more than 20,000 soldiers by 2011.