Army-Wide Shuffle Of Maneuver Battalions Would Mean 10 Fewer BCTs - An Army reorganization plan up for decision later this year would result in more maneuver combat forces inside the service's brigade combat teams, but it also would mean the service will have fewer BCTs overall, Inside the Army has learned.
At issue is whether the Army should outfit all BCT variants -- infantry, Stryker and heavy -- with three maneuver battalions. The move would entail adding third maneuver battalions to the infantry and heavy BCTs. Stryker brigades already have three.
The end result would be a total of 63 BCTs drawn from across the active and reserve component, compared with the post-modularity inventory of 73, according to an official who discussed the analysis on background. Decisions could follow the ground service's Total Army Analysis for the budget years 2014 to 2018 this summer, the official said.
The expected number of BCTs is based on an end strength of 520,000, taking into account the end of a temporary 22,000-personnel increase and the planned cut of 27,000 by fiscal year 2016, according to the official.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey helped hatch the plan during his tenure as Training and Doctrine Command chief, which ended in April. When he rose to become the chief of staff, the thinking in the Army was that he would implement the plus-up of BCT maneuver forces and others moves related to tweaking the design and mix of the Army.
Sources said it remains to be seen if the proposal would enjoy the same momentum under an Army chief other than Dempsey, who is widely reported as the administration's pick for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "It would require educating a new set of eyes to all these ideas," said the official, speculating on such a scenario.
The number of Army BCTs is a fundamental yardstick in a defense-wide strategy for the employment of land power. Internally, the figure is tied into the Army Force Generation concept, equipping strategies, and it plays a role in the tempo of unit rotations in and out of warzones during extended conflicts.
According to the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, the Army currently has 40 infantry, eight Stryker and 25 heavy brigade combat teams. Of those, 45 are active-component formations, 28 are provided by the Reserves.
Word of more muscular but fewer BCTs comes as defense leaders begin to think about the shape of the U.S. military in the face of what many observers believe will be declining defense budgets. Outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said a decades-old requirement to have sufficient forces for fighting two major wars at the same time should be reassessed as part of a Pentagon-wide review.
"[A]bove all, if we are to avoid a hollowing effect, this process will need to address force structure: the military's fighting formations such as Army brigades, Marine expeditionary units, Air Force wings, Navy ships, and supporting aviation assets," Gates said on May 24 at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "The overarching goal will be to preserve a U.S. military capable of meeting crucial national security priorities, even if fiscal pressure requires reductions in that force's size.
The Army official acknowledged that a smaller number of BCTs could "narrow the strategic flexibility of the force." At the same time, the official added, this would be offset by a plus-up in maneuver capability.
"If you think in terms of combatant commanders who request an Army brigade to come serve in theater X or Y or Z, if they would in the past have requested three light brigades for a total of six battalions, now they can ask for two and still get six battalions," the official said. "But the employment of those battalions is much more effective in terms of the flexibility that the brigade commander has, whether it's a combat operation or a stability operation."
According to supporters of the BCT reorganization, brigade commanders returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan expressed a preference for maneuver forces when asked to what kinds of forces they would have liked more of.
But a RAND report circulated among lawmakers and defense officials in March casts doubt on the need for the third maneuver battalion, as Inside the Pentagon reported earlier this month. "The Army has been aware, almost from the beginning of the move to the brigade-centric force, of the limitations that the missing maneuver battalion imposes on the force, and it has crafted compensating tactics, techniques and procedures," the report states.
"Former BCT commanders with whom we spoke would surely prefer a third maneuver battalion, but none believed that the two-battalion organization has led to greater risk in current operations. If circumstances changed and more capable adversaries appeared, the Army could reorganize to provide a smaller number of larger, three-battalion BCTs with the same end strength if it concluded that doing so would provide a clear advantage," states the document.
Questions over the Army's evolving BCT structure led the Congressional Research Service to suggest a "more measured and introspective pace" for the Army's Ground Combat Vehicle program and infantry brigade modernization effort.
A second Army official said any service reorganization plan likely would be heavily scrutinized on Capitol Hill because it comes after the service has received tens of billions of dollars for its modularity initiative over the past decade. The modularity drill gave rise to the brigade combat team as the Army's premiere land-based contribution to joint operations. – (Source: Inside the Army, by Sebastian Sprenger)
Army Looks To Textron For Armored Vehicles For Afghan Army - The Army yesterday said it has taken an undefinitized contract action (UCA) with Textron [TXT] to produce up to 440 Medium Armored Security Vehicles (MASVs) for the Afghanistan National Army (ANA). The UCA has a potential value of approximately $543 million, and authorizes initial funding of $125.9 million to begin work leading to the delivery of 240 MASVs and associated support equipment, spare parts, field service representatives, training and training aids. The first vehicle is expected to be delivered in November.
The contract includes an option to produce an additional 200 vehicles with a potential value of approximately $286 million, which would complete by December 2012.
The MASV, manufactured by Textron's Marine and Land Systems, is based on the Army's M1117 Armored Security Vehicle (ASV) platform. Sharing approximately 70 percent commonality with the ASV, the MASV consists of nine different variants, each designed to meet specific combat roles and enhance the quick reaction capability of the ANA, the service said in a statement.
The nine variants include the ASV and armored personal carrier configurations, as well as the command and control, ambulance, engineering, maintenance, mortar, and reconnaissance variations. "This is a big step forward for the Afghanistan Army," said Col. David Bassett, the Army's project manager for tactical vehicles. "The design of the MASV will provide the ANA with a level of MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) protection in a combat vehicle platform." (Source: Defense Daily)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment