WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has successfully validated a force structure change intended to help it make better liquid-gap transitions during large-scale combat operations, according to service leaders.
Defense experts have long considered the US bridging capability inadequate, particularly in the European theater.
Building bridges over rivers or other bodies of water to advance an operation sounds simple, but it involves complex coordination to ensure that the enemy is suppressed enough to move thousands of troops and equipment and that the bridges can support even the heaviest combat vehicles and tanks.
Strong liquid-gap transit capabilities are also expected to be needed in the Indo-Pacific region, according to military officials and defense experts.
“The US clearly does not have enough river crossing capacity, and river crossing is an important part of what happens in Ukraine” said retired Army Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who previously led U.S. Army Europe, in an interview with Defense News earlier this year. year. Beyond Ukraine, bridging is “a capability we need to have in many parts of the world.”
Typically, engineer brigades, which provide bridging capability, are a corps-level advantage, but during a large-scale combat exercise — Remagen Ready — at Fort Cavazos, Texas, earlier this fall, the 36th Engineer Brigade was stripped of III Armored Corps and was inducted into the 1st Cavalry Division, Maj. Kevin Admiral, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, told Defense News in a Dec. 12 interview.
Corps consist of two divisions and approximately 20,000 to 45,000 troops in total, while divisions consist of three brigades and 10,000 to 15,000 troops.
Wet-gap crossings “are one of the most difficult things,” said Col. Aaron Cox, the commander of the 36th Engineer Brigade.
“We play a role, which is the actual construction of full-casing rafts and bridges. These tactical challenges are not very difficult, but it ensures that the threat of fires is reduced, that there is no enemy on the far targets, that we have obfuscation, that the enemy logistics hubs on the far side are suppressed.” he added. “That’s where the challenge comes from, and converging all of those capabilities in one location in time so we can deal with them successfully.”
Engineer units in divisions “are not built for large-scale combat purposes,” the admiral noted. These units are usually organized into battalions under brigade combat groups, which are insufficient to support large-scale combat maneuvers. To pull off a division-level liquid gap crossing in large-scale combat, “I would need external resources that I don’t really have,” he said.
Placing the 36th Engineer Brigade with the 1st Cavalry Division for the exercise gave the division the assets and manpower it needed to execute the wet gap mission. Because the brigade was under the control of the division commander, it was easier to coordinate the complex movements required to set the conditions for a safe crossing and then to make the crossing about 20,000 soldiers and their armored equipment.
The 1st Cavalry coordinated the two-day live liquid gap crossing during the exercise with two physical bridges using what’s known as the Enhanced Ribbon Bridge, which consists of panels that can be placed on the back of a truck for transport and then combined for to make bigger plans. Seven panels linked together can support an M1 Abrams tank.
The exercise validated the need to bring engineer brigades under division command, the admiral said, part of a broader plan to redesign the force structure as the Army modernizes and shifts from years of using the brigade combat team as a tactical unit where they plan and execute maneuver operations. Now, the agency plans to give the department that responsibility.
During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, BCTs operated relatively independently, but large-scale land, air, sea, space, and cyber operations against adversaries such as Russia and China would require division-level operations.
The exercise “gave us a good opportunity to do an initial validation of the Army 2030 Armored Strike Division,” the admiral said. “This is the right direction for armored divisions.”
Army Futures Command continues to work on what the structure of a modernized force will look like in 2030 and beyond, incorporating lessons from exercises like Remagen Ready.
The Army’s plan to grow its engineer companies, according to the agency’s acquisition chief, Doug Bush, is “on track. I just find the money,” he said in an interview this fall. “It’s a big priority, especially as they learned a lot from trying to move to Europe.”
Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist who covers land warfare for Defense News. He has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.
Read the original at Defence247.gr
