"Winning the Deep Fight: Wny we should return to..." Topic

…. ECHELONED RECONNAISSANCE AND SECURITY

"The dynamic, multi-domain battlefield of the future will undoubtedly create challenges for a wide range of the US Army's functions. This is especially true for senior tactical echelons like corps and divisions as they modernize and focus on large-scale ground combat against highly capable adversaries. The requirement to execute reconnaissance and security operations, in particular, has emerged as an area of concern for Army forces as they prepare to fight across more expansive and lethal battlefields. So where should we begin looking for solutions to enable future success? As with many dilemmas about the future of war, pertinent insights may be found in the past.

Operation Desert Storm in 1991 illustrated how corps and divisions can employ echeloned reconnaissance and security forces to shape conditions for success during large-scale ground combat operations. In that offensive desert campaign, senior tactical commands relied on dedicated armored cavalry regiments (ACR) and division cavalry squadrons (DIVCAV) with cross-domain capabilities to fight for information, conduct counter-reconnaissance, prevent surprise, and more generally provide freedom of action for main body elements. VII Corps and the 1st Infantry Division, in particular, benefited from the coordinated actions of 2nd ACR and 1-4 CAV, respectively, as they maneuvered to envelop and destroy entrenched forces of the Iraqi Republican Guard…."
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Armand

Problem is all your armored cavalry regiments are now "Stryker" regiments and have no integral armor. The staying power of a Stryker squadron even with anti tank versions is not the same as the mixed squadrons they had with M1's and ‘3's along with the dedicated tank company.

Interesting read. On the upside our (U.S.) brigade combat teams have dedicated battalion sized recon and security (R&S); for armor brigades this unit configured with an organic tank company has significant capabilities to fight for intel as well as providing robust counter recon and security. On the downside US divisions no longer have a dedicated R&S asset at echelon. The US Army experimented with what was termed a Battlefied Survielence Brigade, which theoretically could fill this need. However, it did not have the capability to fight for intel nor could it execute the screen mission, let alone the more demanding guard and cover missions. Timely for me as I'm experimenting with various brigade and division minis games to explore these gaps. All the more so since I have a meeting this up coming week with the article's senior author on a different wargaming project, but I'll be sure to bring this topic up. Thanks for posting Armand!

Mike

A votre service mon ami!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand