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| The 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, received six assault breacher vehicles during the last five months. The ABV will help to reduce the breaching time and increase soldiers’ survivability. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Kyle J. Richardson, 1st ABCT PAO) |
I can't help but have mixed feelings about this vehicle.
On the one hand, the Marine Corps deserves serious applause for taking lemons and making lemon aide when it comes to developing a vehicle that Congress denied them.
On the other hand, the US Army had a perfectly fine, purpose designed Combat Engineer Vehicle ready to go but the Congress refused to fund it.
With that being said this is a good stop gap but work needs to continue to field a real CEV. Follow this example and base it off the hull of an M1...maybe even design a drop in module with a excavator in addition to the line charges, dozer blade and some type of demolition gun.
Combat Engineers for both the Army and Marine Corps have swung so far to the Sapper side of the fence that mechanized missions will be a challenge. Even now it might be a lost art.
Well, the sapper side of the house is all about mobility, and Army sappers can reorganize to conduct breaches, route clearance, or light infantry tasks as needed. They are the "utility infielder" of the Army.
ReplyDeleteThe specialty companies, bridging, horizontal and vertical construction, are getting the short end of the stick in my opinion. Thankfully the National Guard still has good capabilities in those fields, and say what you want about the Guard and Reserve, many of those units are damn good.
I think the sapper focus is here to stay. I think mainly because IEDs are here to stay. This would lead to an active engineer force designed to support operations in a restrictive environment for light and motorized infantry operations. I think that the heavy mech divisions will task org their engineer companies based on Brigade METL which means they could go either way, light or heavy focus depending on the most likely mission coming up.
Having done the METL crosswalk for a Sapper company before has shown me that you really do have to choose what you are good at, and in a year or two you may have to choose a very different METL.
funny you say that. its the same debate thats raging on the pages of the Marine Gazette. your point about the Sapper role being here to say is something i hadn't thought about. but like they're talking about in the Gazette it might be time to specialize these guys.
Deletemy bigger point is that during the lead up to Gulf Wars 1 and 2, the US Army had been trying non-stop for that type of fight. deployments to NTC made sure that they were good at it. today if you dropped a heavy BCT into Ft Irwin could they still fight and win in a force on force engagement....or would it be a return to the bad old days when NTC would constantly send units back home whipped and humiliated while using Russian tactics and simulated Russian gear.
which brings up another though. does anyone know what Chinese operational philosophy is?