Fiddle's Green

[Adm.Lee]

At one point there was a lot of discussion about purchasing Scimitar/Spartans and equipping at least the divisional cavalry squadrons with them...needless to say, not-invented-here struck and that idea crashed and burned.

From what I've read, I like Scorpion, etc., but aren't those tracked, and thus not armored cars?

The issue with the army deploying Stryker is that the force mix is moving from light/heavy to medium. Not a bad idea from a budget standpoint...right? The problem with how it is being implemented, we are destroying our heavy capability in favor of medium with little regard as to who we may be fighting in a decade.

So, point me to a source: how many "medium" brigades are we talking about, and how many heavy and light? The pre-2002, 10-division Army used to have 6 heavy divisions and 4 separate heavy brigades/regiments, right? That makes 22 heavy brigade-equivalents, leaving out divisional cavalry squadrons, 21 after we subtract the light brigade from the 2nd ID. And there were 4 light divisions* (10th with only 2 brigades?), a short airborne "task force" and a motorized cavalry regiment, so 13 light and 1 medium, let's say. Yes, I know the new brigades are 2+ battalions, vice 3, but let's leave that out for the moment.

BTW, I'm fully in agreement that heavy stuff is needed, and that medium forces, as we are talking, probably won't cut it on a mechanized battlefield. I'm just looking for numbers.