Fiddle's Green

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by Abbott Shaull

3rd platoon would have 12 M1s....WOW the platoon would have as much firepower minus the HQ section of a regular Armor Company...lol

Tell me about it! To the best of my knowledge, it was only pulled on that one REFORGER with mixed results (gee wonder why). That's why the next move in the troop was to go to four line platoons, two with 6 M3 each and two with 4 M1A1s apiece. This is the configuration that went into Desert Storm.

[Abbott Shaull]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

Tell me about it! To the best of my knowledge, it was only pulled on that one REFORGER with mixed results (gee wonder why). That's why the next move in the troop was to go to four line platoons, two with 6 M3 each and two with 4 M1A1s apiece. This is the configuration that went into Desert Storm.

That is how I figure they were arranged, and ironic close to what Troops was suppose to have...

[bobcat]

honestly 2ACR vs 3ACR i still say the 89 regiment would tear both apart.(though we did steal mainly from 2 and 3 for the initial cadre then grabbed the craziest infantry guys and FO's in the army to round it out. (at least none of my guys ever got caught)

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by bobcat

honestly 2ACR vs 3ACR i still say the 89 regiment would tear both apart.(though we did steal mainly from 2 and 3 for the initial cadre then grabbed the craziest infantry guys and FO's in the army to round it out. (at least none of my guys ever got caught)

Nope, the old Deuce would win, hands down!!!! Even Patton claimed that that his finest cavalry outfit was the 2nd!

[bobcat]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

Nope, the old Deuce would win, hands down!!!! Even Patton claimed that that his finest cavalry outfit was the 2nd!

thats cause my regiment only stood up 6 years ago. if Patton were to see the kind of cadre we stole from ya'll and how they trained the younger troops up he'd have been impressed. of course it does take a special kind of crazy to do half of what my unit has done in its short history.

[Abbott Shaull]

Originally Posted by bobcat

thats cause my regiment only stood up 6 years ago. if Patton were to see the kind of cadre we stole from ya'll and how they trained the younger troops up he'd have been impressed. of course it does take a special kind of crazy to do half of what my unit has done in its short history.

Yes with the major reorganization of the Light Infantry/Airborne/Air Assault and the Mech/Armor Brigade to the new Units of Action and later the Modular Brigades. It seems that the new units that have been created out of it really have done well with the limited time they were stood up and expect to be operational in. Considering some units in WWII had years to train before they had to see action...

[Panther Al]

As mentioned earlier, its not the concept of the stryker brigade that I think is a bit silly. It's light, which means in a conventional conflict it has issues. This isn't a bad thing: provided all it is is a few units in a RDF role. When it's the bulk of the army on the other hand, its a different story. Assuming that in a few years that we even have any heavy forces left, it means our army will erode like snow under a fire hose. It is sad that the Iraqi army has more tanks - including well over a hundred brand new M1A1SA's - than it looks like we will in three years at this rate.

But let's look at the concept of a RDF. At heart it is an air transportable unit, high in firepower, meant to be something along the lines of an ablative speedbump, with more staying power than the 82nd airborne. So, it needs armour, it needs firepower, but it needs to be light. Now, off hand the Stryker is all that, and even better -and it is truelly a good thing- all the Strykers have immense parts commonality. They also have to have as light of a logistical tail as possible, as well as the unit on the whole has to have everything it needs, arty, air, intel, engineering, air defense, and MPs.

Sounds a lot like the current organisation of a heavy cavalry regiment, save that while it could be transported by air with some effort, there was plans for this, and that the logistical tail because of the threethousand and one (OK, some exaggeration there) different vehicle types. This, if the Stryker brigade was built on the ACR format would fix that.

But the stryker has flaws, and serious ones in my opinion. For some reason politics got involved and coupled with various pet projects caused it to become immensely complex, with about every bell and whistle they could tuck in. And all that has a weight that could have been used for armour, and reduce the maintenance level (I think in T2K terms it would be at least a 12 if not 16). Not to mention wheels. In a force designed as an offensive, rapid, strike force, this isn't a bad thing. For an RDF designed to hold the line, or to engaged in sustained combat operations it is.

So, what is the right answer?

Stay tuned...