Tuesday, February 14, 2012

How Many Brigades?

I'm confused. I thought we had 45 active Army brigades and 28 National Guard combat brigades, for a total of 73. This DOD overview of force levels has a number that makes no sense:

The Army will eliminate a minimum of eight brigade combat teams, out of a total of about 65 today, and do a study that may lead to reorganization and perhaps changes in that number. The Marine Corps: six combat battalions out of roughly 41; four tac air squadrons out of 20. The Air Force will eliminate seven tac air squadrons out of about 61, and reduce some mobility aircraft -- 27 C-5s, and you can see the numbers there.

Sixty-five brigade combat teams? Did we lose 8 National Guard brigades while I wasn't looking? I know we didn't add 20 active brigades recently.

What gives?

We're losing 8 active brigades and we might lose more if we reorganize the brigades to make them bigger--by adding another maneuver battalion, I assume. I've got that. But I still don't know what our total of 65 brigade combat teams means.

I suppose the simplest explanation is that the briefer mis-spoke and meant to say "45.". But it wasn't corrected in the transcripts. So we have 65 what today?