ARMY ANNOUNCES RECONFIGURATION OF FOURTH STRYKER BRIGADE

US Army News Release ^ | May 14, 2004

[Cannoneer No. 4]

The Army announced today that it will adjust the design of the fourth Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) from a Cavalry to an Infantry configuration.

The 2d Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light), stationed at Fort Polk, La., will begin the transformation to an Infantry-based Stryker Brigade upon its return from Operation Iraqi Freedom. The unit is expected to attain an initial operational capability (IOC) as an infantry-designed SBCT by late 2006.

The conversion of the 2d ACR to an infantry-centric SBCT supports the Army’s transition to modularity, standardizes the design for all six planned SBCTs, and increases the number of Army infantry formations available to combatant commanders worldwide to set the tempo of battle and act decisively against enemy forces.

“Global demands for infantry-centric formations, coupled with the Army’s ongoing transformation to modularity, require a change in design for the fourth Stryker Brigade Combat Team, from a cavalry construct to a standard infantry-centric SBCT formation,” said Col. Ben Allen, Director of Integration, Department of the Army Programs.

The design change will not change the home stationing for the unit at Fort Polk.

For more information:

Please contact Maj. Gary Tallman at 703-697-4314, gary.tallman@hqda.army.mil

[Cannoneer No. 4]

This is severely < messed > up. 168 years of glory pissed away. You can dismount cavalry, but you can't make them infantry-centric.

This is a crying shame. A wheeled armored cavalry regiment with Strykers instead of Bradleys and Centauros or some kind of mobile gun system that actually works instead of M1's had the potential to be a pretty capable force.

Does Armor Branch have any say in anything anymore?

[Red Badger]

From AIRPLANE 2 "Hmmm, Stryker......Stryker.....STRYKER!......" ............

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Stryker Brigade Combat Team Tactical Studies Group (Chairborne)

[William Terrell]

It seems like it ought to mean something to me. What exactly are the implications of such a reconfiguration? I'm not sure I know the difference between one Army unit and another. I was in the Marines.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Free Republic Treadhead Ping

[neverdem]

Once upon a time, the First Cavalry Division had all its Infantry battalions trace their lineage to four Cavalry Regiments. A rose by any other name is still as sweet.

[Darksheare]

It seems that neither armor nor artillery has any sway on anything these days.
Kinda like the, "Let's take 13bravos and make them MP's!"
(Or combat engineers..)
And then they wonder where their artillery support went, so much so that they started pulling the howitzers from ski resorts.

Cav troopers are a different breed, their mindset and thinking is somewhat different than infantry.
But, being malleable and adaptable, they will eventually make it work.
But there may be snags first.

[centurion316]

Veterans of the 1st Cavalry Division who fought throughout WWII as dismounted cavalry (read infantry) might disagree with you. There will be a big knock-down drag out over unit designations for units in TF Modularity - combined arms battalions (armor, infantry, both ??), RSTA (cavalry, armor, ??). I'm sure that the 2d Cavalry will remain on the books, but its days as an armored cavalry regiment per se are probably short lived. The same applies to 3d ACR, not sure that Armored Cavalry Regiments make it in the force of tomorrow.

[neverdem]

I'll be surprised if Corps commanders don't want to retain Armored Cavalry Regiments for scouting and covering force missions.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

The Armored Cavalry Regiments were unique. They were combined arms mini-divisions that were often given divison-sized missions. The 3 line squadrons had mixed tank/scout troops, tank companies and howitzer batteries. Many considered them the elite of the armored force. For decades 11th and 2nd ACRs manned the ramparts of the frontier of freedom in Europe.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Dismounted cavalry is not infantry, anymore than 19D's are 11B's. The difference may not be readily apparent to the naked eye, but it exists in the mind of the cavalryman.

1st Battalion, 77th Armor aims to transform into infantry unit discusses some of the attitudinal differences.

[norton]

"...retain Armored Cavalry Regiments for scouting and covering force missions..."

Sounds like an old refrain, 'who needs tracks on the ground when we can do all that with unmanned drones and electonics...'

Didn't work worth a damn for intelligence.

[William Terrell]

Ok. "Calvary" replaced horses with machinery, basically, maintaining the fearsome and heavy nature of the horse charge against foot soldiers. So, what, they're are willing to give up the psychological advantage of death steel for flexibility?

I can see how this could be slightly more applicable to municipal conflicts, but there is a lot more open country than cities, anywhere you go.

Thinking aobut it, I wouldn't imagine the lower echelon officers and men think much of this.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

http://www.cavalrycountry.org/cavalry.htm

No, they are giving up firepower, mobility and shock and esprit d'corps for infantrycentricity.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

click here.

[verity]

Does Armor Branch have any say in anything anymore?

Yes. They are trying to introduces horses on the TO&E! :~)

[VeniVidiVici]

Maybe these babies will make a comeback for the RA

http://www.geocities.com/banzaidyne/heavygear/fav.html

[Cannoneer No. 4]

I believe we tried those and found them wanting.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

The History Of the Second Dragoons

[AIBC]

And why do our enemies need to know that?