via Army.mil
"We need to make sure the ground-force commander's mission and intent are met," said Maj. Matthew S. O'Neill, 3rd BCT aviation officer. "We also need to stay within the capabilities and limitations of the aircraft."40 aircraft in the sky.
With any operation where aircraft are involved, safety is a primary concern. During Exercise Golden Eagle, there will be multiple aircraft flying close to each other, some while carrying equipment via sling load. In addition to having numerous aircraft conducting missions, there will also be live-fire exercises being conducted by artillery units.
"There will be approximately 40 aircraft in the air simultaneously," said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Brian McKnight, 5-101st CAB standardization pilot. "There will be more than 30 sling loads and more than 1,000 personnel moved on the main day of the exercise. We also have to deconflict our air space with what the artillery is doing. The senior aviators have come together and used their experience to predict where the friction points are going to be and put plans in place to mitigate those risk factors."
Despite the myriad of moving parts and often tedious complexity of timing and synchronization necessary for success, having an air assault heritage in the 101st Airborne Division (AASLT) proved to be a major asset in the planning of Golden Eagle.
"We are the 101st and we have the Gold Book and we are the gold standard for air assaults," said Blanton. "
1000 personnel moved by air on the first day.
This is like an IA Drang Valley big freaking exercise kinda deal. Quite honestly I've never seen an Army Brigade sized Air Assault. I thought that they didn't do that anymore (not since Vietnam anyway).
This is impressive but it still faces the same issues that I see with the Marine Corps moving toward an almost exclusively aviation based assault structure.
What happens when you run into a helicopter ambush?
Did everyone forget Karbala?
Army doctrine for that has changed, now helicopters won't fly beyond the FLOT, even Apaches. Although in a conventional fight where you would need a Brigade level op there shouldn't be pre-defined air corridors which allow the enemy to place ambushes with precision.
ReplyDeleteBut even in a full kinetic war a Brigade level air assault will be moving into a cleared or secured LZ which will serve as a starting point for some other tactical task like "block" or "delay" or even use as an attack point for something that isn't on the LZ. We have Pathfinder Companies just to go ahead and do that mission.
You have to admit, the ability to displace a Brigade over horrible terrain (swamp for example) with artillery support to put pressure on an enemy flank is a nice thing to have in the toolbox.
its an excellent tool but you have to pick your spots...carefully pick your spots or those guys are hanging on thread.
DeleteAM.
Deletedo you have any indication of the goal behind this exercise? is the Army looking to integrate Air Assault and Stryker Brigades across the board. will we see more large scale exercises like this?
http://www.history.army.mil/documents/SWA/DSIT/Peay.htm
ReplyDeleteSolomon,
ReplyDeleteWith the rehashing of Brigades to include another manuver (read Infantry) Battalion per Brigade, and bumping up the capabilities of the Combat Aviation Brigades (CAB) to have more platforms, think of this as the beginning of a validation excercise.
A few years back when the 82nd validated the C-17 Globemaster as a single source option for delivering a Brigade Combat Team to the fight (dropping the entire brigade onto the DZ in two hours or less) it validated a true "global ready force" from the Army. Now we can get get a Brigades worth of paratroopers to any spot on the globe in less than 18 hours now, but supporting them after that gets iffy.
Anyways, expect the bulk of the Stryker Brigades to be nominally aligned with PACOM, 2nd ID at JBLM, 25th ID in Hawaii and Alaska. Expect the 101st and the 82nd to be the "ready team" for FORSCOM to provide to any COCOM who needs them, and expect the Armored Brigade Combat Teams to struggle for relevancy by prepositioning stocks in Japan and Korea (in fact the Korea prepo stock depot was recently upgraded).
Since USMC retains MBTs, and any new APC will likely be heavier than the previous models, no ground is ceded on the GCE-structure. E.g. even TUSK has been acquired.
ReplyDeleteAnd nobody on this globe can VTOL air-lift anything like these.
Any USMC-supporting USA assets will come to ride aboard USN Connectors way forward-positioned, since USA's Landing-Craft Fleet is pretty much a slowish and state-side asset.