More than 300 armored Stryker vehicles belonging to Fort Lewis' 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 news release.

Most will arrive on C-17 Globemaster III cargo jets, although C-17s from McChord Air Force Base are not involved in the airlift, officials said.

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 the 5th Brigade will deploy this summer.

It's the first time Strykers have been deployed on this scale in Afghanistan, although members of Fort Lewis' 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment have used the eight-wheeled vehicle in the mountainous country.

The Army boasts seven Stryker brigades - including three at Fort Lewis - but all previous combat experience has been in Iraq.