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US Army details new combat structure

US Army details new combat structure

By Joshua Kucera JDW Staff Reporter
Washington, DC
Additional reporting by
Andrew Koch JDW Bureau Chief
Washington DC

The US Army is solidifying plans to reorganise the combat command structure that has been in place since the Second World War. The service is creating three new echelons to replace the existing four: the brigade, division, corps and army.

The new echelons will be:

the 'unit of action' or UA, which is roughly analogous to the current brigade but which has more support structure inside it to allow it to deploy independent of a division;

the 'unit of employment X' or UEX, which will only be a headquarters staff along with operational support structure such as base security, liaison officers and network support; and

the 'unit of employment Y' or UEY, which will be a regionally based theatre-level support headquarters.

The terms for the new echelons are only temporary and army officials are treading lightly on what could be a controversial topic given the history and tradition associated with the army's current divisions and brigades. "There's an exciting discussion under way on that," Major General Robert Mixon, the head of the task force examining army reorganisation, told JDW. A decision will likely be made in the second quarter of 2005, said Gen Mixon.

The 3rd Infantry Division has already been partially reorganised, especially at the brigade/UA level. There is also a hybrid of the UE level along with the normal division structure, said Gen Mixon. For example, a signals battalion is performing the job that a network support company should do, the liaison office is not set up and the security company and main command post are not as large as they will eventually be. Still, "the structure is maturing very rapidly", Gen Mixon said.

Central to the reorganisation effort is the frustration that comes from the time-consuming process of forming joint task forces when the US wants to take military action. The new structure will more closely resemble the way the army actually organises forces for combat, army officials say.

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