Soldiers assigned to the 10th Mountain Division train Oct. 30, 2024, at the National Joint Training Center in Getica, Romania. The Army will continue to offer servicemembers incentive pay for deployment extensions and rotational assignments. (David Dumas/US Army)

Soldiers who are nearing the end of their enlisted contract in a unit scheduled for rotational deployment can continue to count on an incentive from the Army to encourage them to stay.

The service will continue to offer incentive pay for extensions and rotational deployment assignments, as it initially announced in January.

The goal is to encourage Soldiers to extend their service to remain available to their units for the duration of a deployment, according to an internal Army message released Nov. 1.

Soldiers who apply for the incentive bonus can still re-enlist if they are otherwise qualified, but the additional duty period will not begin until the initial extension period has ended.

The Army introduced the incentive pay in a message to military personnel in January, with an expiration date of a year later, which is common for such messages. The last message, with retroactive effect to October 1, aligns with the financial year and expires in one year.

The extra money is only being offered to active-duty soldiers for their first term and does not include those in the Army Reserve or National Guard, according to the post.

To be eligible for the incentive bonus, soldiers must be on their first contract with an end date between the start and end dates of the deployment, plus 90 days.

Eligible Soldiers can apply for the incentive nine months before the unit’s last deployment date.

Those who extend between six and nine months before then will receive $500 per month for each full month extended. Those who sign up at least 90 days before their service term expires but less than six months before deployment will receive $250 per month.

Payment is made as a lump sum and is also tax-exempt if deployed in a fight tax exclusion zone.

Members of the military can respectively cancel or modify their extension request if the deployment fails or if the deployment dates are changed by more than 30 days.

The Army did not provide answers to questions related to the number of soldiers who have benefited from the incentive since January, the amount of money paid or whether the extensions contributed to the 2024 retention figures.

This incentive is in addition to operational deployment allowance, announced in Octoberwhat soldiers receive for deployments of more than 60 days.