The Army is looking at pushing combined arms units down the organizational chart:
The U.S. Army is again reorganizing its combat units. The last major reorganization was after 2003 when the independent combined arms brigade became the basic combat unit, replacing the combined arms division that had become the standard before and during World War II. The latest effort seeks to create combined arms battalions. China recently announced that it was making such combined arms battalions the standard combat organization for ground forces. Russia has already moved in this direction and the United States is experimenting with it.
We've done this before. During the Cold War combined arms task forces (battalions) and teams (companies) were commonly formed from the pure tank and mechanized infantry battalions.
And recently it was standard in the heavy Combined Arms Battalions before we reduced the Army post-Iraq War and contracted the number of brigades:
Our current "heavy" brigade combat teams have two maneuver battalions with 4 companies each, split evenly between tank and mechanized infantry companies. I liked this balance because I've read that experience going back to World War II showed that a balance between infantry and tanks works better than having too many tanks and too few infantrymen.
The Army has been looking at the issue of pushing combined arms down to the lowest practical level for some time, actually.
Keep in mind that it is possible that our leadership will suffer without pure tank battalions to produce leaders who understand tank warfare, as an article advocating pure tank battalions I linked to in this post argued.
I suspect that we can push down combined arms to the battalion and company levels--because we have in the past with great success. But it should be the common practice in the field rather than the organizational standard which should be combined arms no lower than the brigade level.
Although I'd be fine with separate combined arms heavy battalions to loan to infantry brigades (or to the Marines these days), as I included in this Army article.
But please, don't think of the Russian battalion tactical groups as the model to follow.
