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.The air assault division s aviation brigade is significantly larger than thoseof other division types, but composed of the same smaller units.The brigadehas a headquarters unit and an air reconnaissance squadron.Towed howitzersairlifted by the Blackhawk provide artillery support.Unimpeded by groundspeeds, the air assault division can deploy and redeploy infantry rapidly acrossthe battlefield as the situation dictates.Other division types are possible.The motorized division existed in WWIIand has been experimented with for some time since.The 9th Infantry Divi-sion at Fort Lewis, Washington, was such a division.While the deployabledivision was supported primarily by a variety of tracked vehicles, trucks, andHumvees, the division experimented with less traditional means includingoff-road motorcycles and dune buggies.Logically, it is infantry supported bywheeled vehicles in a compromise having the strategic mobility approachingthat of an infantry division with the battlefield mobility of the heavy divisions.In reality, it was a division headquarters that kept the flag flying and that wasfleshed out with combined-arms battalions of motorized infantry and anti-armor companies and with maneuver battalions equipped with old tanks andold armored personnel carriers.The constabulary division was formed for occupation after WWII.Con-stabulary divisions were designed purposefully in postwar Europe.In Japan,infantry divisions degenerated into constabulary divisions.Rather than infan-try battalions trained for combat, soldiers carried side arms and patrolled citystreets and the countryside.They remained infantry divisions in name butdid not train for combat.The ill-fated Task Force Smith sent to Korea wasformed from these constabulary forces.The Germans developed an airlanded division early in World War II.Dif-ferent than the airborne division, the airlanded division was designed to be aninfantry division delivered by landing at a secure airbase, possibly secured inadvance by airborne forces.The light infantry division the U.S.Army developed during World War IIwas an unfinished product with a different meaning than it has today.TheArmy first formed an infantry division of men.When the need becameclear for a division to fight in the mountains of Italy, for example, onelight infantry division was given the specialized training and transportationassets, including mules, appropriate for infantry operations in mountain-ous terrain.The light infantry division was then named the 10th MountainDivision.Airborne, motorized, or mechanized infantry forces could simi-larly be constructed.Separate Brigades and Armored Cavalry RegimentsBesides the brigades that are subordinate to divisions, the Army has nondi-visional brigades called separate brigades.Their composition is summarized in86 Shaping U.S.Military ForcesTable 3.3.Another organization, the armored cavalry regiment, is sufficientlysimilar in structure to be included in the same discussion.Like divisions,armored cavalry regiments and separate brigades are designed for employ-ment under a higher echelon, the corps.These nondivisional brigades arecapable of commanding up to five battalion-sized maneuver elements duringsustained operations and up to seven for brief periods; their size is not fixed.The Troops column of Table 3.3 contains the approximate number of troopsassuming the maneuver elements shown.The airborne special forces groupdoes not conduct operations as a unit but, rather, is deployed as somewhatindependent detachments.Corps, Armies, and Army GroupsThe very largest army organizations those above division are corps,army, and army group.More than just size distinguishes these higher ech-elons from the lower.Division and below are purely tactical.Echelons abovedivision have responsibilities at the operational and strategic levels of war.Through the Cold War, corps became the Army s dominant warfighting com-mand structure.Unlike division and below, the higher echelons have no fixedorganization.All, however, have the familiar staff structure.During WWII, corps was a headquarters element that could take on front-age and divisions as dictated by the army commander above.The army echelonretained responsibility for providing logistics support to the divisions assignedto corps.Today s corps is far more complex.In addition to a significant staff,it has its own resources, including artillery, aviation, intelligence, and signalbrigades.Corps also has an armored cavalry regiment and may have separateTable 3.3Army Non-Divisional BrigadesUnit Type Maneuver Elements TroopsSeparate Armored Brigade 3 tank battalions1 mechanized infantry battalion 4,961Separate Mechanized Brigade 2 tank battalions2 mechanized infantry battalions 5,306Separate Infantry Brigade 3 infantry battalions1 mechanized infantry battalion1 tank battalion 6,144Separate Light Infantry Brigade 3 infantry battalions 4,142Separate Airborne Brigade 3 airborne infantry battalions 4,099Armored Cavalry Regiment 3 armored cavalry squadrons 5,042Airborne Special Forces Group 3 special forces battalions 1,385Army 87brigades that have adequate organic combat service support to take on missionsseparate from division.In a major land war, as the NATO Warsaw Pact conflict was expected tobe and WWII was, a division might be exhausted after only a few days ofbattle.It could be pulled off-line to rearm, refuel, and refit [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]