January 8, 2008:
One of the criticisms
of the way the war in Iraq was fought was that there were not enough U.S. troops
available. Many in Congress demanded that the size of the U.S. Army and Marine
Corps be increased. The generals were not keen on this, as they knew that, in
the long term, they would need the money more for new technology that would
reduce the need for troops. The navy and air force are already going through a
massive downsizing because of this. It's hitting the army as well. In any
event, it would take the army and marines years to turn those additional troops
in combat ready units. As we have seen in Iraq, the generals were right. But in
the short term, the generals have to do what Congress wants.
About a year ago, a compromise was
reached. The U.S. Army will add 74,200 soldiers.Most (87 percent) will go to the active
forces, increasing the size of the active duty forces by 13 percent. This will
mean expanding many bases, and a lot of reorganizing. To let everyone in (or
out) of the army know how this will play, the army has set up a web site at http://www.army.mil/growthearmy/,
that explains it all.
This site also shows how the army has
changed, or at least been moved around, in the last five years. In that time,
the army has also been going through a reorganization. At the end of the Cold
War, the army had 800,000 troops, and sixteen divisions (55 brigades, including
independent brigades). That was cut during the 1990s, to 500,000 troops, ten
divisions and 33 brigades. A recent reorganization added ten brigades. The
addition of 65,000 troops to the active army will increase the number of combat
brigades by six, to 49. This will all be completed by 2013.
The current army organization is
different from what it had fifteen years ago. The army is a leaner
organization, with more support services outsourced to civilian firms, and a
larger proportion of troops in combat units. The reorganization of the last few
years created a new "brigade-centric"organization. Twenty new combat brigades were created. The new force of 77
active duty and reserve brigades could, it is believed, provide a twenty brigade
force in a combat zone indefinitely. There would be enough brigades to rotate
them in and out of the combat zone, allowing time for rest and training back in
the United States.
The reorganization made the brigades,
not the divisions, the primary combat unit. The new brigades have more support
units permanently attached, and can be more easily sent off to fight by
themselves. In the past, doing this involved quickly adding a lot of support
units to the brigade. The new organization made small support units part of the
brigades, and, more importantly, the brigades train using these support units
and learns to work well with them. The divisions still exist, but operate more
like the corps has for the last two centuries (coordinating the actions of a
few divisions and only having a few support units under its command.)
Divisions now have four (instead of the
traditional three) of the new brigades, but can control more (or fewer) brigades
if they have to. Each of the new brigades (or BCTs, for Brigade Combat Teams)
has 3,500-4,000 troops (depending on type). There are three types of BCTs;
light (infantry, including paratroopers), heavy (mechanized, including tanks)
and Stryker (mechanized using wheeled armored vehicles.) The reorganization increased
the number of active duty combat brigades from 33 to 43. This is done by
reorganizing the combat units of each division into four brigades, instead of
the current three.
There are several independent brigades
as well. New weapons and equipment (especially satellite based communications
and battlefield Internet software) enable the army to get the same amount of
combat power brigade, using fewer combat troops. The army transferred over
40,000 troops from combat-support jobs to the combat brigades. The actual
number of infantrymen and tanks didn't change, but the number of
communications, maintenance and intelligence support did. For example,
increased use of robots, sensors and computerized vidcam surveillance systems
makes it possible to do the same amount of work in combat, with fewer troops. A
lot of these new ideas, and equipment, is being tested in Iraq and Afghanistan,
and most of these items work well in combat.