Funny enough, I concluded exactly that after seeing the results of the Iraq War conventional invasion:
The Iraq War showed the value of our heavy armor in no uncertain terms. They mostly shrugged off RPG hits and kept going, smashing anything in their way. Even our lighter forces needed Abrams tanks. The Marines adopted them after Desert Storm. We airlifted some in to 173rd AB brigade this war. We left tanks to back up our paratroopers and air assault troops in city combat as the rest of 3rd ID marched north. Nor did time constraints prevent us from getting lots of heavy armor to the war. One reason for wanting lighter armor is to be able to airlift them into a war to repel an invasion with little notice. How often will this happen? I'm glad we didn't airlift a bunch of light stuff in record time back in September 2002 and then just waited for March 2003 to start the war because we thought heavy armor was not deployable. We had the time, sent our heavy armor, and reaped the benefit of this "Cold War" relic on the battlefield.
This war, far from being an argument for lightening our Army, argues for heavying up our light forces. Sure, we can still experiment with the Stryker brigades, since technology may yet make heavy armor obsolete (but we've heard that before). But for the near term, listen to what we learned in the streets of Iraq. The Abrams/Bradley team is awesome. Attach a tank battalion or a tank heavy task force to each of our light brigades. Perhaps they can be National Guard separate battalions for the most part. Give them to the light infantry, paratrooper, and air assault divisions. Depending on the war, they can be left behind or sent along as appropriate. Then, our spearhead heavy divisions won't need to strip armor to support supply line battles or urban combat. It sure worked for us in World War II when every American "infantry" division had a tank battalion and a tank destroyer battalion attached—making them the equivalent of German armored infantry divisions.
I guess that idea was bubbling around in my brain for a long time. I found that while looking for something else.
Of course, perhaps the biggest surprise is that 15 years after I made that suggestion we still have the same Abrams tanks and Bradley infantry/cavalry fighting vehicle as the core of our heavy forces.
