The Army Reserve is probing whether selected units of military police, medical, engineering and logistics troops could support the U.S. Southern Command as early as late December, CBS News reports, citing an internal Army Reserve message circulated by Army Reserve headquarters last week to aid in its contingency planning.

Although the message does not mention Cuba by name, asks no unit to deploy and fails to describe the forces that the six support formations that the Army Reserve is assessing would support, the officials who are familiar with the planning reviewed by CBS News described the message in connection to possible military action against the Communist island and stressed that no decision has been taken on such action.

Army Reserve units have until September 25 to inform headquarters whether each of the six support formations—the lead of which would be an expeditionary sustainment command, or ESC, responsible for managing all the sustainment requirements of an entire theater—could supply the selected troops within 90 to 120 days. Such a timeline would mean that deployment of the selected troops could take place as early as late December and as late as late January.

Note that none of the units that are being considered for support of Southern Command are combat units. Five of the six units under consideration are logistics units, including the lead unit, an ESC, engineers, a medical brigade with a forward surgical detachment, and a military police brigade responsible for providing security and handling detainee operations.

The contingency planning in connection to Cuba is part of earlier reporting by CBS News on contingency planning related to Cuba, including a May report in which CBS News reported that U.S. intelligence agencies were studying how the Cuban military might fight in the event of an invasion; and a July report in which CBS News reported that the planners had examined an air assault by 101st Airborne Division troops as one of the possible invasion options.

In addition, CBS News reported in July that U.S. military personnel had surveyed the waters and the seafloor off of Cuba for possible invasion beaches. Meantime, in the parallel diplomatic and economic track, Washington has in recent days ratcheted up pressure on the Communist government of Cuba, including placing the island’s military research enterprises and the nickel companies of Cuba on the U.S. State Department’s list of sanctioned entities.

Southern Command declined to comment on the Army Reserve message, saying that it does not “comment on U.S. operational movements or potential deployment timelines” and noting that it “continues to assess a range of potential requirements.” At the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, September 22, President Trump declared that the government of Cuba “will fall” and that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was “deep into negotiations” with Havana’s Communist leaders.

The remarks prompted a walk-out by the Cuban delegation. Rubio told reporters on Thursday, September 23, that the preferred way to bring about change in Cuba “is that which doesn’t involve the use of military force” but acknowledged that the president “has both the power and the obligation” to deal with what he called a national security threat.