The Shape of the Army

I thought the Army was expanding to 48 brigades by FY 2011, with the decision late in the Bush administration to expand the end strength enough to add six brigades to the Army.

My Association of the United States Army "Profile of the U.S. Army 2008" shows the Army going to 46 brigades by FY 2013.

1st Infantry Division will have two heavy brigade combat teams (BCTs) and two infantry BCTs.

2nd Infantry will have a single heavy BCT.

3rd Infantry wil have three heavy BCTs and two infantry BCTs.

4th Infantry will have three heavy BCTs and two infantry BCTs.

25th Infantry will have one infantry BCT, one airborne BCT, and two Stryker BCTs.

1st Armored will have four heavy BCTs and two infantry BCTs.

1st Cavalry will have four heavy BCTs.

10th Mountain will have four infantry BCTs.

82nd Airborne will have four airborne BCTs.

101st Airborne will have four infantry (airmobile) BCTs.

And there will be three Stryker BCTs directly under I Corps, and separate 2nd Cavalry Regiment (a Stryker BCT) and 173rd Airborne BCT.

That's 46 active component brigades. The BCTs have two line battalions of four companies each and a light recon squadron. The Stryker units have three line battalions each (I think they have three companies each).

And it is interesting that the Future Combat System brigades planned (15) will have three line battalions each and a recon squadron as main elements. I don't know if the line battalions will have three or four companies each.

I thought that two brigades in Europe were being basically transferred to the continental United States in a couple years. Are these being disbanded without reconstituting them in CONUS because the Army is worried about their budget in future years? That was always the reason the Army resisted adding end strength to create new brigades--the Army assumed once the war in Iraq was over the funding would peter out leaving the Army with the cost of maintaining unneeded brigades.

How have we lost two brigades between FY 2011 and FY 2013?