The Army faces the task of designing a new division to wield the weapons being rushed into service.
This author reviews past Army division reorganization efforts:
The Army conducted nine major reorganization efforts during the Cold War: the reorganization of triangular divisions, 1947–1948; the pentomic division, 1955–1963; the Reorganization Objective Army Division (ROAD), 1960–1963; the 11th Air Assault Division (Test), 1963–1965; the 1st Cavalry Division triple capability, 1971–1974; the Division Restructuring Study (DRS), 1975–1979; Division 86, 1978–1980; the high-technology motorized division, 1980–1988; and the 7th Infantry Division (Light) 1983–1986. The four most significant of these offer particularly relevant lessons to the Army of today: the triangular division, the pentomic division, ROAD, and Division 86, which led to the Army of Excellence light division.
It helps to know who you will fight and where. Without that, design is much more difficult. The bottom line?
Ultimately, the better the Army balances span of control, combat power, and mobility in its force design, within the never-static cycle of national security policy and amid personnel and budget constraints, the more likely it is to achieve operational success on the battlefields of tomorrow.
The division is back after the long brigade-centric Army counter-insurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think span of control is under-appreciated. The vaunted Russian battalion tactical group (BTG) suffered from that problem despite the fawning worship of all their combat power compared to American units. Can AI help commanders cope with more capabilities at lower levels?
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
NOTE: You may also like to read my posts on Substack, at The Dignified Rant: Evolved. Go ahead and subscribe to it. You know you want to.
