Featured in ARMOR
Maintenance = People Readiness
by GEN Paul E. Funk II
Successful units and maintenance programs depend on a culture of maintenance. It is this culture, or way of doing business, we must now employ to turn on a persistent challenge regarding our No. 1 pacing item – our Soldiers. We need to apply the culture of maintenance to our people to build our overall readiness and the health of the force.
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Bringing Great-Power Competition to the Tactical Level: European Rotational Deployment Considerations for Company-Grade Armor Leaders
by MAJ Brigid Calhoun and CPT Alexander Boroff
Discussion and analysis of great-power competition currently dominate national-security and defense-strategy forums. This article seeks to distill the concept and its implications down to the tactical level of war by explaining great-power competition to company-level leaders; describing the European operational environment where these leaders may rotationally deploy; and providing leadership and planning considerations for their rotations.
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A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words (or 3,110 Words)
by LTC Jim Armstrong
There are rich benefits in how a commander can better create shared understanding for his/her organization’s mission, leader development, risk, resources and assessment methods with a picture rather than relying solely on a statement.
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The ETHICAL Warrior
by Chaplain (MAJ) Jared Vineyard
Ethics is a hot topic these days – when to use force, how to use force, whom to use force on and systematic fairness are all a part of the national discussion. While these and related discussions continue nationally, they are not new concepts to the military professional. Ethics are embedded in the foundation of the Army profession.
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Reconnaissance and Security Operations are Essential to Thwarting Russian Interests in the Western Hemisphere
by 1LT Anthony M. Analla
With bolstering Venezuela the known objective of the Russian government, the U.S. Army must think critically and train effectively to counter Russian support for the Latin American country that could manifest itself into an armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere.
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At the Forward Edge and Beyond: Lethality and the Armored Brigade Combat Team
by MAJ(P) James Burnett and MAJ Jeff Feser
Operational requirements for the past 20 years have degraded the armored brigade combat team’s lethality. The state of armored lethality at the small-unit level is serious, and it is continuously decreasing through the loss of institutional knowledge.
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Armored Brigade Combat Team Cavalry Squadron’s Combat Trains during Large-Scale Combat Operations: Balancing Maintenance, Recovery, Freedom of Maneuver
by MAJ Gary M. Klein and CPT Ragan T. Rutherford
Cavalry-squadron doctrine provides a template for how to organize and arrange the squadron’s sustainment and maintenance systems. Unfortunately battlefield friction makes it challenging for leaders to arrange and operate the combat trains as neatly as doctrine describes it.
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Zone Reconnaissance – Why Don’t We Do It?
by MAJ Jeffrey W. Jennings
Zone reconnaissance is the most common mission assigned to cavalry troops at the National Training Center, yet it is almost never executed to standard.
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Reforge the Broken Saber: Evolving the Infantry Brigade Combat Team’s Cavalry Squadron to Win the Recon Fight Part II
by SGT Christopher Broman
In Part I we discussed squadron and troop organizational solutions. In this part we’ll look at suggested technology, as well as more Soldier and vehicle solutions that support the organizational solutions proposed in Part I.
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Recon and Security in the Urban Fight
by CPT Kyle D. Woods
Since World War II, American military doctrine has discouraged armored forces from participating in the urban fight. However, military necessity has often pressed mechanized forces into this fight. In World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and Iraq, America’s armored Soldiers have encountered fighting in larger and larger cities. This trend is likely to continue.
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The Growing Vacuum of Today’s Live-Fire Ranges and their Future Requirements
by 1SG(R) Frank Belonus
For many, live-fire is the pinnacle of training realism, validation and qualification, yet there is a growing vacuum in live-fire facilities’ infrastructure and capabilities when it comes to meeting organizations’ near-future requirements.
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The BMPT-72 and the Problem of Direct-Fire Support in Armored Formations
by 2LT E.R. Chesley
The tank is a finely tuned machine designed very specifically to kill other tanks, a task it performs far better than any other weapons system. Unfortunately, in becoming a tank-killer, the tank has lost most of its ability to engage other types of targets.
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Volcano Minefield Planning at the Brigade Combat Team and Below
by CPT Gregory Shepard and CPT Doni Wong
While many senior leaders at brigade level and above may recall mine-training events at the National Training Center in the 1990s, many current planners at battalion level and below have not participated in them. Moreover, changes in U.S. landmine policy restrict the munitions available to current planners who did not defensively plan in the 1990s.
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Armored Warfare During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939): The Experience Reconsidered
by COL(R) Anthony J. Candil
The Spanish Civil War was the first encounter between tanks in combat, although limited. However, the employment of tanks on the Spanish battlefield allowed many aspects and possibilities of armored warfare that later would make it a key decision tool for modern warfare.
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Mobility, Shock and Firepower for Light Armor-Infantry Operations: Past, Present and Future
by CPT S. Scott Diddams
Tactics, techniques and procedures are constantly evolving as the enemy encounters our weapons’ effects, just as we upgrade our weapons and training to counter his advantages. This is especially true in our infantry brigade combat teams, which have limited resources. In response to this deficiency, 82nd Airborne Division is experimenting with a mobile protected firepower company.
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Section Gunnery and Armored Brigade Combat Team Lethality
by CPT Zachary J. Matson
Section gunnery and noncommissioned-officer development go hand in hand. Field-grade leaders who fail to schedule this event deny a portion of their formation invaluable training. Unfortunately, many armored brigade combat teams choose this route.
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COVID-19 and Virtual Wargaming in ROTC: A Deadly Virus Resurrects Aged Tactical Training Method
by LTC Andrew P. Betson, 2LT Adam Messer, 2LT Tristan Boomer, 2LT Justin DiCarlo, 2LT Marshall Green
In spite of the pandemic, cadre and fourth-year cadet leadership of Gateway Battalion used the unprecedented levels of technology and communication at our fingertips, and looked to the Prussians of the early 1800s and U.S. Army Reserve units of the 1980s for help. The result succeeded beyond expectations when it came to training our cadets.
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A Case for Covered Motorpool Parking
by CPT(P) David Blanton
The Army invested more than $20 billion in new ground-combat systems acquisition in Fiscal Year 2020. Notably absent from the investment was an analysis of preventive measures to increase the service life of these systems – for example, overhead covered parking shelters designed to protect high-cost systems from the environment.
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U.S. Constitution
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Tactics, Techniques and Procedures for Employing Brigade and Task-Force Engineers
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