Participants in the transition team survey like the brigade combat team model but want to refine the formation. For example, many called for an engineer and a third maneuver battalion in the BCTs, and are willing to give up BCTs to see it done. Respondents also said the EAB is completely broken, and relationships between BCTs, the division and the Corps need to be strengthened.
“You can plug and play modular units, but you can’t plug and play relationships,” one respondent said.
The relationship issue is surely important. But given that our current battalions have 4 companies instead of 3 as the old battalions had, we only lost one line company in a brigade by going from 3 line battalions to two in a brigade. Plus we have a tiny recon and surveillance battalion in the new brigade. Why not beef up the recon unit into a stronger recon unit?
But if we want larger brigades with established command relations with the divisions, there is still the problem of recreating large divisions too unwieldy to be moved around the globe. So it seems appropriate to refer back to an article I wrote for Military Review close to 11 years ago (see page 91 in the September-October 2000 edition). Removing the graphics eliminated some of the context of the text (because I had word limits that I had bumped up against I relied on the charts). I wish the editors had allowed me the chance to revise the text to make up for the lack of graphics. The version I submitted is not available on the Internet Archives. But my original text is saved here--but the links to graphics don't work.
Basically, I proposed a tiered system of 2-brigade divisions with round-out brigades from the National Guard at the top level for rapid deployment, with 50-50 brigades in the second tier for reinforcing, and cadre divisions of Guard brigades to provide a base for creating new divisions for a long war. Brigades could also be shifted up or within the tiers to reinforce those divisions for deployment.
As long as the debate is open again, I'll toss my two cents in again. Or rather, my 2-brigade divisions. There is no reason that we couldn't strengthen the brigades with stronger recon and engineer elements and use them in my proposal.
NOTE: I updated the link to an online version of the published version and revised the text around it to reflect the death of old Geocities links. The illustrated version I submitted is lost to the web, I guess.
