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http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/ ... 4-3-id.htm

Divisions get a new look

Heard thats a pretty good book by MacGregor, though some of the reviews that I read kinda slam him a bit it seems for being hard on naval and air power, course those doing the hitting are also Navy and Air Force officers, but they all say its a very good, well-written book.

Anyway its a book I still intend to pick up.

Back to the origional article I see the change is giving the brigade more firepower and more mobility to make up for the fact that it will have less grunts.

It's kind of interesting that they are taking the infantry out of the infantry division.

I also find it interesting they are removing large ammounts of engineering equipment. While much of this equipment is designed for building positions, and thus uncool in the age of "mobile warfare" as we've seen in Iraq, the Americans are not immune from being force to take part in positional engagements. The enginering gear is also useful for improving the troops mobility. Reducign the number of howitzers is being done for a similar reason, but is partially (not totally) offset by the increased number of helicopters and direct fire armoured vehicles.

Givent hat the Americans are having problems keeping enough infantrymen in their armed forces, I can see why the need to "mech-up" the division. But I still don't think getting rid of the less mobile stuff like
howitzers and engineering gear helps the division in anyway, except perhaps making sure it still fits on the same number of transport ships.