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The format for the support units of the new American Army divisions is being made public. The Fires Unit of Action (or Fires UA, not sure what it will be called in the final version) will take the place of the Division Artillery and perhaps the separate Field Artillery Brigades at corps level. Each Fires Unit of Action will consist of a Headquarters, 3 MLRS Battalions (all ATACMS, long range missile, capable), two 155mm self-propelled howitzer battalions, and a support battalion. At one level, they will reinforce the fires of the Brigade Combat Team’s artillery battalion, which is a somewhat...

June 29, 2004: The new infantry brigade organization is similar in size and scope to the Heavy BCT organizational change. The 101st Airborne Division is beginning to undergo this change and will ultimately field 4 of the new BCTs. The 10th and 25th Infantry Divisions will follow later in the process. As with the heavy units expect changes as a result of training at the Joint Regional Training Center in Fort Polk, LA and from a pending deployment back to Iraq. The new infantry brigade is organized as follows; Special Troops Battalion -- Headquarters Company -- Signal Company -- Military...

June 23, 2004: The Army is transitioning to the new “Units of Action” (UA). This article compares the combat power of the Brigade Combat Team (BCT) used during the 2003 Iraq campaign, to the Heavy UA. The UA is still evolving and can be expected to change further as the 3rd Infantry Division rotates its units through the National Training Center and its forthcoming deployment back to Iraq. At first glance, the UA’s appear slightly more robust. The table below shows the number of major combat vehicles in each unit: [somebody post these tables for me] The BCT of two...

June 17, 2004: The U.S. Army is in the midst of transforming existing combat brigades to a new brigade sized unit with the uninspired name of “Unit of Action” (UA). The new UA organization is designed to bring all the elements the brigade needs to fight under one headquarters, make the brigade more modular, easier to deploy, and increase the number of combat brigades available within the army from 33 to 43 or 48, and therefore increase the combat power of the Army. In order to evaluate this, we shall compare the Brigade Combat Team (BCT) used during the 2003...