De Nieuwe Divisiestructuur van de US Army

[Mourning]

Naar aanleiding van een andere topic over het soort voertuigen wat we zouden moeten hebben/ontwikkelen een artikel dat wat meer over de US Army en haar divisies in de toekomst blootgeeft. Niet alles wordt lichter zoals door velen in Europa gedacht.

Vooral de enorme versterking van de verkenningsarm is opvallend, maar zeker niet verrassend gezien de prioriteit die snelheid, reaktievermogen en inlichtingen vandaag de dag op het moderne slagveld spelen (kijk naar de opmars van de 7th Armoured Cavalry Regt, officieel een voor de grotere formaties over een brede lijn optredende eenheid, tijdens de oorlog in 2003) en de importantie daarvan die in de toekomst alleen nog maar zal toenemen.

Een andere al lang verwachte ontwikkeling is de daadwerkelijke verbetering van de uitrusting, mogelijkheden en capaciteiten van de infanterist dmv het Soldier Modernisation Program in de praktijk te brengen.

"ARMED FORCES OF THE WORLD: New U.S. Army Division Organization



August 23, 2004: The format for the support units of the new American Army divisions is being made public. The Fires Unit of Action (or Fires UA, not sure what it will be called in the final version) will take the place of the Division Artillery and perhaps the separate Field Artillery Brigades at corps level. Each Fires Unit of Action will consist of a Headquarters, 3 MLRS Battalions (all ATACMS, long range missile, capable), two 155mm self-propelled howitzer battalions, and a support battalion. At one level, they will reinforce the fires of the Brigade Combat Team's artillery battalion, which is a somewhat smaller two-battery battalion of 16 guns (but may change to 3 batteries of 5, 6, or 8 guns). Normal battalions have 18 guns. With this organization, the Division Commander (or whatever the Unit of Employment will end up being called) will be able to weight his main effort with additional artillery and dedicated assets to the counter fire battle. The new organization nearly doubles the amount of artillery assigned to a division. Interestingly, there are hints from the USAF that the tube count will go way down and that the Army will depend more and more on the Air Force for fire support, using it to replace both artillery and attack helicopters. This remains to be seen...

Each Unit of Employment (Division) will receive a Maneuver Enhancement UA. This will consist of a Rear Operations Center, a Civil Affairs Battalion, An Engineer Group, an MP (Military Police) Battalion, an NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) battalion, an ADA (Air Defense Artillery) Battalion (now apparently called Air and Missile Defense), and a Support Battalion. These increase and centralize many of the separate units currently in divisions (such as the NBC Company, ADA battalion, and MP Company), and resurrects the Division Engineer Brigade, albeit in a Group format.

The Sustainment unit of action looks to be taking the place of the Division Support Command and the Corps Support Group. It will consist of at least three Support Battalions, with Supply, quartermaster, medical, and maintenance units of different capabilities), a Medical Group, A Personnel Battalion, and a Finance Battalion.

The Reconnaissance and Security Unit of Action will be a brigade sized unit that effectively takes the place of the Armored Cavalry Squadron. The new R&S UA has an headquarters company, an MI (Military Intelligence) Battalion, a Support Company, and a Long Range Surveillance Company (LRSC). This organization looks to be a bit weak to this observer, as it does not provide the Division Commander with a dedicated set of eyes and ears in the form of the divisional Cavalry squadron. Indeed, the R&S UA looks a little like the MI battalion, made into a brigade, to compensate for losing its cavalry companies to the Brigade UAs. It will be interesting to see how this unit gets fleshed out, perhaps it will have JSTARS and AWACS ground stations, long range UAVs, and other radio-electronic equipment previously maintained at Corps. This unit would seem to be a better fit in the Maneuver Enhancement UA, while the LRSC should be in the Aviation UA, specifically in the General Support Aviation Battalion.

It appears that the new Heavy division has now been designed. Undoubtedly it will be tweaked as a result of combat and regional training center experience. It was not able to get to the five Units of Action (now Brigade Combat Teams) that was originally hoped for (and perhaps too near to the organization of the old Pentomic Division – which was an abject failure) and nearly returns to the old World War I "square Division" of 12 Battalions. Expect the Infantry Division to have a similar look.

With this reorganization, the division grows from 10 maneuver battalions (4 or 5 tank, 4 or 5 infantry, and a cavalry squadron) to 12 (4 tank, 4 mechanized infantry, and 4 cavalry), with more tightly integrated supporting arms organic to the Brigade Combat Teams. It has more soldiers, as well, and groups all its units into 9 brigade sized units instead of the current divisions 7 brigade sized units (3 Maneuver Brigades, Aviation Brigade, Division Artillery, Engineer Brigade, and Division Support Command, plus several separate units: Division HHC, ADA Battalion, MP Company, Signal Battalion, MI Battalion, and Band, somewhat reducing the Divisions span of control.)

It is hoped that the new organization will be more deployable, more flexible, be able to generate more combat power, more supportive of rotation of units to overseas duty and alert status, and, through basing initiatives, withdrawal of forces to the Continental United States, more stable and therefore better trained and led.

At this point, this observer sees the division will be able to support rotation of its units better, though they will be no more or less interchangeable than the old brigade, appear to have less combat power, and are no more deployable. They may be more flexible than the old division, simply because they have more maneuver units to employ, but it remains doubtful if information will become the new reserve on the battlefield. -- Mike Robel


August 16, 2004: The reorganization the U.S. Army is currently undergoing, is changing the shape of the army. The current ten combat divisions will grow from 16,000 troops each, to 19,000. This is because the manpower in the divisions is being reorganized to create four brigades and twelve combat battalions where there were previously three and ten. In addition to the larger number of battalions, there's also going to be much new equipment. The reorganization will allow for the introduction of the "battlefield Internet," and expensive new gear to support it. This is what it sounds like, and it has already been used, in combat, in the 4th Infantry Division and the Stryker brigades. This means the conversion cost for each division will be about $1.1 billion. The army will spend about $3 billion a year on the reorganization until it's completed. Ironically,
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Regards,

Mourning