Saturday, June 17, 2017

The Return of Heavy Forces

In an effort to get ready for potential high intensity combat, the Army is adding heavy brigades at the expense of lighter units:

The U.S. Army is planning to move pre-positioned stock stationed in South Korea back to the continental United States in order to outfit an armored brigade combat team, according to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.

The move is part of a bigger effort to rebalance brigade combat teams to emphasize the need for heavy, armored BCTs over lighter infantry BCTs. The Army is converting an infantry brigade combat team to create a 15th armored brigade combat team and will build the 16th using the pre-positioned stock from South Korea.

This is good. I agree.

But is taking the equipment from unit set stockpiles in South Korea the best idea?

I know that North Korea's army is rotting away, but are we so confident that South Korea can handle the north with just American air and missile support?

But I guess our stockpiles of weapons are so thin that the Army needs the equipment already in place if it wants a heavy brigade soon rather than scraping up equipment from stockpiles not in unit sets. That's disturbing.

But perhaps the pre-positioned unit set in South Korea will be rebuilt when money is available.