Army to Switch 2 Heavy Brigades to Strykers

[CommunityEditor]

Two heavy brigade combat teams will vanish by 2013 to make way for two new Stryker brigades, bringing the Army’s number of active SBCTs to eight and taking another bite out of its armor formations.

Planning documents obtained by Army Times say 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas, and 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Hood, Texas, will be converted to SBCTs beginning in fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2012, respectively, and will take 24 months to become fully operational.

Another combat aviation brigade would be built, with aviation assets reallocated from the 3rd ACR’s Longknife Squadron, mostly AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters, and tracked equipment and other assets of the heavy units to undergo conversion will be redistributed to the Army’s heavy BCTs as needed.

The move to convert two heavy brigades to Stryker units signals the Army’s shift toward a lighter, more quickly deployable formation that is infantry-focused and proven to be highly mobile in diverse environments.

And it further reduces the Army’s number of heavy brigades. Defense Secretary Robert Gates had announced in April that the Army would hold the total number of brigade combat teams at 45 rather than the planned 48, and the Army nixed a plan to grow three heavy brigades.

The 1st HBCT, which is deploying to Iraq now, will begin its conversion in the first quarter of fiscal 2011, during the reset period after its fall 2010 redeployment.

The 3rd ACR redeployed from its third rotation to Iraq in January and no announcement has been made about its next deployment.

But the Stryker plan calls for the 3rd ACR to begin its conversion in the first quarter of fiscal 2012 during the reset period following deployment.

That would mean the unit will be receiving orders to deploy for a year beginning fall 2010.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/20...r_web_093009w/

[sapperk9]

I am intrigued that as the US moves to a somewhat lighter armoured structure, we see the Israelis (IDF) deploying an APC based on Merkava, the Namer at over 60 tons.

I can appreciate that the US needs to deploy to the two-way-rifle-range and the IDF might argue that it IS where the war will be.

As an outsider to both, and having in another lifetime been involved in the procurement of Leopard for Australia (also, perhaps as a consequence being an absolute cynic about the procurement of Abrams for Australia) I see increasingly, the IDF as having chosen its military environment, whereas, mostly the US, Australia and the UK have inherited theirs. I judge the IDF as uniquely effective, and us others as somehow constipated in the wars of Wellesley.

What do I mean by this? I have never seen any IDF members in shining brass and stiff collars, strutting like clowns around a piece of heavily rolled bitumen or turf. What a waste of real military skilling time?

In our current constipation of hierarchy, I am haunted by;

"Pace is protection, rapidity means surprise...Increased mobility and range entails great calls not only on endurance...but on intelligence and initiative in all ranks...A new sort of discipline is required. The 'You're not required to think' variety is obsolete."

Then (ex RE) LtCol Percy Hobart, KBE CB DSO MC, RTC tactics lecturer, Quetta - 1926 in 'Light Division of the Future.'

Perhaps the IDF thought processes, equipping, training and tactics are influenced by the the absence in Hebrew of the word "Sir"?