Zitat:The new "brigade based" structure will replace the current arrangement, designed for the Cold War when the Army was prepared to fight giant set-piece battles on European soil, where the support roles were organized at the division level. It will improve the deployment ratio so that there can be two brigades at home for every one deployed overseas.

Zitat:USA Pays Lockheed $182.8 million for HIMARS and Rockets
Posted 05-Jan-2006 07:25
Related stories: Americas - USA, Contracts - Awards, Expeditionary Warfare, Lockheed Martin, New Systems Tech, Other Equipment - Land, Rockets, Shells & Mortar Rounds
Also on this day: 05-Jan-2006 »


Lockheed Martin Corp. in Grand Prairie, TX recently received a pair of different but related contracts. One was for the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), a cut-down, truck-mounted, C-130 transportable version of the M270 Multuiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS). (...)

Zitat:Two Infantry Battalions consisting of three rifle companies and one combat support company each; and a forward support company capable of moving one company by truck. [...]
One Support Battalion consisting of a transport platoon capable of moving almost an entire infantry battalion by truck.

Zitat:Infantry UAs, may be more deployable than the current light infantry brigades or possibly less deployable, depending on the number and types of vehicles and equipment associated with the particular UA configuration.

Zitat:US-Army kann einen weiteren Krieg führen

Der US-Heeresminister Francis Harvey hat in einer Pressekonferenz erklärt, daß die US-Army - trotz der in den Irak und nach Afghanistan entsandten 18 Brigaden - durchaus in der Lage sei, weitere 18 Brigaden für Operationen in Krisengebiete wie zum Beispiel Iran aufzustellen. Wenn US-Präsident Bush es befiehlt, dann sei die Army bereit, einen weiteren Krieg zu führen, sagte Harvey weiter.

Mit der Pressekonferenz wolle er Gerüchten in den Medien entgegentreten, die behaupten, die US-Army sei durch ihre Operationen im Irak und in Afghanistan weit überdehnt und überfordert.

Abschließend sagte er, die US-Army bewältige derzeit große Herausforderungen, aber sie sei zweifellos die vorherrschende Landmacht in der Welt.

Zitat:"US-Army am Rande des Zusammenbruchs"

Die Einsätze im Irak und in Afghanistan belasten das US-Heer so sehr, dass ein "Zusammenbruch" droht. Davor warnt ein pensionierter Offizier in einer Studie für das Pentagon.
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Zitat:HQ Bloat, Combat Loss in US Army's BCT Re-org?
One of the centerpieces of the US Army's transformation plan has been its proposal to break down divisions into something called "Brigade Combat Teams." The idea is that the US would be able to deploy the brigades with minimal support from higher-level HQ, something like the US Marine Corps' pioneering MEUs. [...]
Now some studies prepared by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) on behalf of the Pentagon's Program Analysis and Evaluation Directorate make the case that the result will actually be something else: growth of HQ staff at the expense of combat troops, reducing maneuver batalions by 20% while growing headquarters by 11.5%. [...]

Zitat:Study Faults Army Brigade Team Plan
A study prepared for the Defense Department has found an Army plan to reorganize its forces into “brigade combat teams” will reduce net fighting capability rather than strengthen it, contrary to the service's vision. [...]
But to increase brigades without boosting overall manpower of the service, officials say they must strip each brigade of one “maneuver” battalion composed of infantry troops or heavy arms. Army leaders say they can field just two such battalions per brigade, rather than the traditional three, in part because each brigade will also have a reconnaissance battalion for support. The move results in a net loss of 40 maneuver battalions, according to analysts. [...]
Adding a third maneuver battalion to each of the Army's heavy BCTs, for example, “better leverages [brigade] overhead by increasing infantry squads and tanks by 50 percent,” IDA writes. The Army's own “Task Force Modularity studies found a straight line correlation between the number of combat platoons (made up of squads or tanks) and the level of success of the BCT,” according to the organization.

In fact, the same Army study also found that in testing the BCTs in war games, “in most two-battalion cases, commanders traded the reconnaissance potential of some or most of the reconnaissance troops for the flexibility a third maneuver element provides,” according to an IDA briefing. [...]
Still, according to the Army officer interviewed this week, the service “didn't dismiss [the IDA analysis] offhand or embrace it purely as written.” The papers are still under review, this source says. [...]

Zitat:Marc79 postete
@ BigLinus Wohl kaum, da JAG rum ist und die letzten Folgen schon abgedreht sind.

Zitat:Real-Life Ray Gun: Say When?

I was skeptical, when I first heard about the idea of using lasers and man-made lightning to detonate explosives at a distance. Not only did the technology sound fantastic. But the company pushing the real-life ray gun, Tucscon's Ionatron Inc., seemed so damn squirrely -- long on press releases and shady political connections, short on specifics about how their technology really worked. And that's before you start digging into the questionable stock deals and patent violations. So I wrote Ionatron off for while, despite more and more headlines about the firm and its "Joint IED Neutralizer" -- JIN, for short.

Then, over the summer, I got a call from an Army general who had seen the thing in action. ...

Zitat:Hybrid Truck's Katrina Duty

Diesel-electric hybrids vehicles are all the rage at the U.S. Army's Tank-automotive and Armaments Command in Warren, Michigan. Rising fuel prices and attacks on fuel convoys in Iraq have inspired a number of programs to develop more fuel-efficient trucks. The idea, according to industry, is to cut the Army truck fleet's fuel consumption by 20 percent by 2010. ...

Zitat:EADS erhält Hubschrauber-Großauftrag von US-Heer
So Jul 2, 2006 5:13 MESZ

Washington/Frankfurt (Reuters) - Der europäische Luft- und Raumfahrtkonzern EADS hat einen strategisch wichtigen Milliarden-Auftrag vom US-Militär erhalten und stärkt damit seine Position auf dem lukrativen Rüstungsmarkt in den USA.

EADS werde das Heer mit bis zu 352 Mehrzweck-Hubschraubern vom Typ UH-145 ausrüsten. Das Geschäft soll auf lange Sicht einen Umfang von mehr als drei Milliarden Dollar haben. Der Konzern sei damit erstmals als federführender Auftragnehmer für einen Großauftrag des US-Militärs ausgewählt worden. Auch eine Gruppe um Agusta Westland - eine Sparte der italienischen Finmeccanica und Textron - hatte sich darum beworben. EADS versucht seit längerem, in dem lange Zeit abgeschotteten US-Rüstungsmarkt Fuß zu fassen. Mit dem Großauftrag verschafft sich der Konzern nach eigener Einschätzung eine gute Ausgangsposition für weitere Ausschreibungen.

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Zitat:More Neo-Nazis in the Military
Associated Press | July 08, 2006

MOBILE, Ala. - The number of neo-Nazis and skinheads in the armed forces is increasing, according to a watchdog group that claims the military is relaxing standards amid pressure to sign up recruits during the Iraq war.

The Southern Poverty Law Center said in a report Friday that the Pentagon is violating its zero-tolerance policy against hate groups and called on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to put a stop to it.

But Pentagon officials said they continue to try to weed out supremacists and those who advocate forms of discrimination.

"This is a serious issue, but we don't see an increasing trend," said Army spokesman Paul Boyce.

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