Observations and Recommendations
Part 1 Brigade Organization and Mission
The brigade's mission is:
The
brigade deploys very rapidly, executes early entry, and conducts effective
combat operations immediately on arrival to prevent, contain, stabilize, or
resolve a conflict through shaping and decisive operations. The brigade participates in major theater
war (MTW), with augmentation, as a subordinate maneuver component within a
division or corps, in a variety of possible roles. The brigade also participates with appropriate augmentation in
stability and support operations (SASO) as an initial entry force and/or as a
guarantor to provide security for stability forces by means of its extensive
combat capabilities."
This brigade would likely
arrive in theatre after the initial entry forces but before heavy forces arrive
via maritime prepositioned ship, thus providing a significant improvement in
combat power available to theater commanders in the opening stages of a
campaign.
While organization and
equipment are still in flux, the IBCT will be organized like current separate
brigades as shown in Figure 1. It will
have three motorized infantry battalions; carried in a "medium weight infantry-fighting
vehicle". This vehicle will be armed
with the a gun from 7.62mm to 25mm in a wheeled vehicle similar to the LAV-25
currently used by the Marines, but also comes in other variants including an
Anti-tank Vehicle, Air Defense Vehicle, Mortar, command and control, logistics,
and recovery variants. The vehicle must
fit on a C-130. It also will have a
field artillery battalion, possibly based on a wheeled vehicle, and/or a HIMARS
battery. However, the significant
difference between these brigades and existing ones is the armored cavalry
squadron. Normally, brigades only have
a cavalry troop. An anti-tank company
and a engineer company round out the brigade. Like all US brigades, the IBCT would be capable of accepting other units
to command such as tank battalions, additional artillery, or air defense units.
Figure 1.
Proposed Medium Brigade
Part 2 Battle Cruisers, Tank Destroyers, and Armored
Cars
