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———————————————————————–27 Feb 12. With a decade of war experience behind it and fewer resources expected in the future, the U.S. Army is now taking a serious look at undoing some of the changes that went into creating its modular force. These moves could reduce lead to fewer brigade combat teams in the active duty force and boost as well as greater pooling of assets, which would reduce the Army’s equipment needs, especially for trucks.
“Modularity has served our Army very well and we will not walk away from it,” Gen. Ray Odierno, chief of staff of the Army, said Feb. 24 at the Association of the U.S. Army conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “However, we now have the time and opportunity to study and recommend changes to our brigade combat team organization and the execution and oversight of the modular brigades.”
Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) is leading an analysis of the brigade combat team design that will result in recommendations for Army Secretary John McHugh to consider in the coming months, Odierno said. To complete its assessment, TRADOC is using soldier assessments, brigade commander seminars and more than over 6,500 hours of simulated operations.
“The early feedback clearly indicates that significant flexibility and capability would be gained by adding a third maneuver battalion and more engineers to our brigade combat teams,” Odierno said.
With the introduction of the new Defense Department strategic guidance, the Pentagon announced the Army would eliminate at least eight brigades, from 45 to 37, and reduce its active duty end strength from 570,000 soldiers to 490,000. Odierno said with the addition of new capabilities, specifically the extra maneuver battalion and more engineers, the Army could reduce the number of brigades further, down to 33 or 32. A 2006 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on the Army’s modular redesign said the Army’s reasoning behind creating brigades with two maneuver battalions versus three was “to generate sufficient combat forces for rotational purposes and in recognition of cost constraints and a need to continue Future Combat Systems (FCS) development.” (Source: Defense News)
28 Feb 12. The Georgian Ministry of Defence has unveiled its second domestically developed Lazika tracked Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) at the Vasiani military firing-range near Tbilisi, Georgia. Georgian Defence Minister Bacho Akhalaia said the Lazika is an advanced heavily armoured offensive weapon, production of which many states do not have in principle, further adding that the nation will continue the development in the near future. The armoured combat vehicle has been in development for two years by the Military Scientific-Technical Center (Delta) through funding from the Georgian defence ministry. Details on the number of vehicles that have been produced by the centre or how many are planned to be manufactured remain undisclosed. Based on the first Georgian-made Didgori armoured reconnaissance vehicle, the 14t Lazika is an heavy armoured IFV equipped with a fire control system along with an automatic 23mm calibre cannon and a 7.62mm PKT machine guns mounted onto the Remote Weapon Station (RWS). The Lazika features a combined armour that provides all-round protection for the crew and infantrymen against firing of 14.5mm calibre armour-penetrating bullets and also against mine blast from underneath at level 4 Standardization Agreement (STANAG). The vehicle features eight electrically operated smoke grenade launchers mounted at the front of the hull, and can also ensure detection and identification of a target at a distance and fire control in any kind of weather conditions due to day-night and thermal vision cameras. The IFVcan carry a crew of three infantrymen, with additional capacity for seven more, and is capable of driving at a maximu