after the first world war, the fortress was occupied by allied serbian and french troops under french command, until july 1919 when it was handed over to the romanian army. in the interwar period, the fortress was a garrison of the 93 infantry regiment of the 1st romanian infantry division. after the armistice between romania and the soviet union, in september 12, 1944 the city and arad garrison was occupied by the soviet red army. the city garrison remained a soviet tank unit until 1958 when the red army retreated leaving way to the romanian army. currently the fortress is hosting a mixed romanian-hungarian joint peacekeeping battalion, operational since 1999.