Increases in Army personnel are mostly going to increases in the support base and filling out units so they don't have to borrow troops from non-deploying units--thus making the non-deploying unit less ready to deploy. This strength will be a bit above pre-0/11 active duty strength.
But remember that a lot of artillery units were disbanded since 9/11 because of the shift to precision fires. So that manpower is available. Also, during the Iraq War a lot of Army slots were freed up by moving jobs to civilian slots. So the Army can do a lot more with even just a bit more official end strength.
There will be 31 Army brigade combat teams and 11 combat aviation brigades in the active force, plus 26 BCTs and 8 CABs in the National Guard. Add in special forces, including the Ranger regiment, of course, as combat forces. And Military Police, which are effectively infantry for rear area security.
The composition of the BCTs will be 13 infantry brigade combat teams (including airborne and air mobile), 11 armored brigade combat teams, and 7 Stryker brigade combat teams in the regular force and 19 IBCTs, 5 ABCTs, and 2 SBCTs in the Guard. This represents a shift to two more active armored brigades from the recent past. Heavying up the Army is taking place through two routes (this is per Jane's 360):
In the spring of 2019, the 1st BCT of the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas, will begin transitioning from a Stryker BCT (SBCT) into an Armored BCT (ABCT). A year later, the 2nd BCT of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado, will transition from an Infantry BCT (IBCT) into a SBCT.
Also, all brigades will have three maneuver battalions each. In the Iraq War era expansion of our brigade total, the non-Stryker brigades went to just two maneuver battalions. Although for deployments they'd have extra forces like artillery or tank units attached, with the personnel trained to fight as infantry and leaving their big weapons back at their U.S. base.
I'm not sure what the composition of the battalions is. Are they traditional triangular with 3 maneuver companies each or do they have 4 companies as they did when part of 2-battalion brigades?
In the Cold War our forces were pretty balanced between infantry and heavy (either tank-heavy armored or infantry-heavy mechanized divisions). Now it is different with the medium Stryker BCTs which have armor-protected wheeled vehicles but little tank-killing power. Although it is true that before the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle with its auto cannon and anti-tank missiles our mechanized infantry had the lightly armored M-113, which was a Stryker on tracks I suppose.
Also, there will be 5 active security force assistance brigades in the active force and 1 SFAB in the Guard. These units free both special forces and active brigades from the role of training allied and friendly troops.
