Quote:
Originally Posted by HorseSoldier
Or was the intent more to provide a pool of battle casualty replacements?
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Yeah, for the most part reserve units would be tapped for replacements.
Some company or small battalion sized units might get deployed, but they'd more than likely be composite units made up from different units in their Area... say no more than a platoon from each regiment
*. They'd then be probably given a light role (rear security, MSE protection, D&S section/platoons, etc). And they would have very little in the way of heavy weapons - light mortars and GPMGs mostly. Only one of the 50+ reserve infantry "battalions" had an equipped and trained 81mm mortar platoon for example.
I can't say for sure about the armd recce guys, but figured they'd be used in the same fashion - replacements or strengthening the composite units I mentioned. The units starting off with soft skins (Iltis) wouldn't probably get reissued anything on a significant scale. We don't really have much in the way of war stocks at all... except maybe some stored Lynx or captured armored vehicles, and the 2 mech brigades in Germany would be priority.
Of course this might all change as the war drags out. Not to mention the Alaskan invasion and the nuclear exchange.
*For example on one exercise, all of the units in one of Land Forces Atlantic Area's "brigades" pooled enough troops and support together to form the composite "1st Atlantic Battalion".