The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers activated the Transatlantic Division in Winchester, Virginia, on September 29, 2009, to consolidate engineering requirements and set priorities for Corps of Engineers operations throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. This new division provides unity of command for all Corps of Engineers programs in this region, called the U.S. Central Command area of operations, which includes the 20 countries from Egypt through the Arabian Gulf to Central Asia.

The division is responsible for military construction supporting U.S. forces throughout this region and for Corps of Engineers’ international and interagency engineering missions that support U.S. policy initiatives abroad.

Up until this organizational realignment, Corps of Engineers support in this region was provided by three major organizations: 

• Gulf Region Division in Baghdad, Iraq, with three subordinate districts (in October 2009, the Gulf Region Division was inactivated)  
• Afghanistan Engineer District, headquartered in Kabul 
• Transatlantic Programs Center, headquartered in Winchester

Currently, the Transatlantic Division has three districts: 

• Afghanistan Engineer District – North, in Kabul 
• Afghanistan Engineer District – South, in Kandahar  
• Middle East District, headquartered in Winchester

The Corps of Engineers has had an organizational unit dedicated to supporting this region and based in the Winchester area since 1976.