Misplaced Pages

#41958

123-472: AirLand Battle was the overall conceptual framework that formed the basis of the US Army 's European warfighting doctrine from 1982 into the late 1990s. AirLand Battle emphasized close coordination between land forces acting as an aggressively maneuvering defense , and air forces attacking rear-echelon forces feeding those front line enemy forces. AirLand Battle replaced 1976's " Active Defense " doctrine , and

246-614: A status quo antebellum. Two weeks after a treaty was signed (but not ratified), Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans and siege of Fort St. Philip with an army dominated by militia and volunteers, and became a national hero. U.S. troops and sailors captured HMS Cyane , Levant and Penguin in the final engagements of the war. Per the treaty, both sides (the United States and Great Britain) returned to

369-402: A strategic nuclear weapon has a yield from 100 kilotons to over a megaton , with much larger warheads available. Use of tactical nuclear weapons against similarly-armed opponents may carry a significant danger of escalating the conflict beyond anticipated boundaries, from the tactical to the strategic . The existence and deployment of small, low-yield tactical nuclear warheads could be

492-456: A concept ("escalate to de-escalate") of using both tactical and strategic nuclear threats and strikes to de-escalate or cause an enemy to disengage from a conventional conflict threatening what Russia considers a strategic interest. The lowered threshold for use of nuclear weapons by Russia is disputed by other experts. Ten NATO member countries have advanced a confidence-building plan for NATO and Russia that could lead to treaties to reduce

615-583: A continuation of the Continental Army, and thus considers its institutional inception to be the origin of that armed force in 1775. The U.S. Army is a uniformed service of the United States and is part of the Department of the Army , which is one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense . The U.S. Army is headed by a civilian senior appointed civil servant, the secretary of

738-515: A dangerous encouragement to forward-basing and pre-emptive nuclear warfare , as nuclear weapons with destructive yields of 10 tons of TNT (e.g., the W54 warhead design) might be used more willingly at times of crisis than warheads with yields of 100 kilotons . The use of tactical nuclear weapons presents a risk of escalating the conflict until it reaches a tipping point that provokes the use of strategic nuclear weapons such as ICBMs . Additionally,

861-651: A few months. The war remains the deadliest conflict in U.S. history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 men on both sides. Based on 1860 census figures, 8% of all white males aged 13 to 43 died in the war, including 6.4% in the North and 18% in the South . Following the Civil War, the U.S. Army had the mission of containing western tribes of Native Americans on the Indian reservations . They set up many forts, and engaged in

984-412: A field of view out to 150 km. Starry introduced the idea that there was not only a geographical dimension to the battlefield organization, but a time dimension as well; the brigade had perhaps 12 hours to respond to actions, while the division had 24 and the corps 72. It was this coordination both in space and time that defined the extended battlefield. The reason that the time dimension was important

1107-483: A functional area. However, officers continue to wear the branch insignia of their former branch in most cases, as functional areas do not generally have discrete insignia. Some branches, such as Special Forces , operate similarly to functional areas in that individuals may not join their ranks until having served in another Army branch. Careers in the Army can extend into cross-functional areas for officers, warrant officers, enlisted, and civilian personnel. Before 1933,

1230-584: A large part of the peak nuclear weapons stockpile levels during the Cold War . The risk that use of tactical nuclear weapons could unexpectedly lead to a rapid escalation of a war to full use of strategic weapons has led to proposals being made within NATO and other organizations to place limitations on—and make more transparent—the stockpiling and use of tactical weapons. As the Cold War came to an end in 1991,

1353-670: A major armored conflict in Europe, or a primarily infantry fight in other locations around the world. The latter possibility led to the Rapid Deployment Force , and in time, the formation of United States Central Command . The former was more problematic given the Warsaw Pact 's massive numerical superiority, especially given the ending of the draft . When the Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973, it demonstrated

SECTION 10

#1732772617042

1476-726: A month – known as battle assemblies or unit training assemblies (UTAs) – and conduct two to three weeks of annual training each year. Both the Regular Army and the Army Reserve are organized under Title 10 of the United States Code , while the National Guard is organized under Title 32 . While the Army National Guard is organized, trained, and equipped as a component of the U.S. Army, when it

1599-487: A new Army Command (ACOM) in 2018. The Army Futures Command (AFC), is a peer of FORSCOM, TRADOC, and AMC, the other ACOMs. AFC's mission is modernization reform: to design hardware, as well as to work within the acquisition process which defines materiel for AMC. TRADOC's mission is to define the architecture and organization of the Army, and to train and supply soldiers to FORSCOM. AFC's cross-functional teams (CFTs) are Futures Command's vehicle for sustainable reform of

1722-603: A new lethality of conventional weapons, especially the anti-tank guided missile (ATGM). The new vulnerability of tanks, combined with the improved defensive power of the infantry, led to a revolution of thought within the US Army—that a war in Europe was winnable with conventional weapons. Impressed by the new weapons, DePuy started the process of re-arming the heavy divisions with weapons that would dramatically improve their firepower. In DePuy's view, firepower had increased so much that war would be won or lost almost immediately, in

1845-480: A predominantly combat support role. The army converted to an all-volunteer force with greater emphasis on training to specific performance standards driven by the reforms of General William E. DePuy , the first commander of United States Army Training and Doctrine Command . Following the Camp David Accords that was signed by Egypt, Israel that was brokered by president Jimmy Carter in 1978, as part of

1968-407: A real threat, and would have to respond to all of them. The key idea was to "Smash blitz offensive by inconspicuously using fast-tempo/fluidity-of-action and cohesion of counter-blitz combat teams as basis for shifting of forces and quick focus of air and ground effort to throttle momentum, shatter cohesion, and envelop blitz in order to destroy adversary's capacity to resist." The battle was less about

2091-469: A return of US-owned and -operated, short range, low yield nuclear weapons (called "tactical" by the US military) to provide a local strategic deterrent to the North's growing domestically-produced nuclear arsenal and delivery systems. Some tactical nuclear weapons have specific features meant to enhance their battlefield characteristics, such as variable yield , which allow their explosive power to be varied over

2214-562: A role in the invasions of Grenada in 1983 ( Operation Urgent Fury ) and Panama in 1989 ( Operation Just Cause ). By 1989 Germany was nearing reunification and the Cold War was coming to a close. Army leadership reacted by starting to plan for a reduction in strength. By November 1989 Pentagon briefers were laying out plans to reduce army end strength by 23%, from 750,000 to 580,000. A number of incentives such as early retirement were used. In 1990, Iraq invaded its smaller neighbor, Kuwait , and U.S. land forces quickly deployed to assure

2337-478: A small tactical nuclear weapon (e.g., the M29 Davy Crockett ) were in imminent danger of being overwhelmed by enemy forces, he could request permission to fire it and, due to decentralized control of warhead authorization, his request might quickly be granted during a crisis. For these reasons, stockpiles of tactical nuclear warheads in most countries' arsenals have been dramatically reduced c. 2010, and

2460-738: A strategy of seizing the coastline, blockading the ports, and taking control of the river systems. By 1863, the Confederacy was being strangled. Its eastern armies fought well, but the western armies were defeated one after another until the Union forces captured New Orleans in 1862 along with the Tennessee River. In the Vicksburg Campaign of 1862–1863, General Ulysses Grant seized the Mississippi River and cut off

2583-587: A tactical nuclear weapon either against Ukraine or in a demonstration strike over unpopulated areas, given that the course of the war does not seem favorable to what the Kremlin anticipated, and several members of the Russian government have threatened the use of nuclear weapons. On 25 March 2023, President Putin announced the stationing of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. Russia would maintain control of

SECTION 20

#1732772617042

2706-713: A wave of criticism, both from within the Army, and from highly influential civilian advisers outside. Having witnessed this first-hand, Starry took measures to ensure this would not happen a second time. Foremost in these efforts was the early dissemination of the concept through briefings and wide circulation of Fort Leavenworth's draft of the new FM 100–5 in 1981. These were well received, especially its newly offensive orientation, which it summed up neatly with this statement: ... once political authorities commit military forces in pursuit of political aims, military forces must win something—else there will be no basis from which political authorities can bargain to win politically. Therefore,

2829-436: A wide range for different situations, or enhanced radiation weapons (the so-called " neutron bombs "), which are meant to maximize ionizing radiation exposure and to minimize blast effects. Strategic missiles and bombers are assigned preplanned targets including enemy airfields, radars, and surface-to-air defenses, not only counterforce strikes on hardened or wide area bomber, submarine, and missile bases. The strategic mission

2952-448: Is due to be completed by 2028. The Army's five core competencies are prompt and sustained land combat, combined arms operations (to include combined arms maneuver and wide–area security, armored and mechanized operations and airborne and air assault operations ), special operations forces , to set and sustain the theater for the joint force, and to integrate national, multinational, and joint power on land. The Continental Army

3075-487: Is no exact definition of the "tactical" category in terms of range or yield of the nuclear weapon . The yield of tactical nuclear weapons is generally lower than that of strategic nuclear weapons, but larger ones are still very powerful, and some variable-yield warheads serve in both roles. For example, the W89 200 kiloton warhead was intended to arm both the tactical Sea Lance anti-submarine rocket-propelled depth charge and

3198-533: Is not in federal service it is under the command of individual state and territorial governors. However, the District of Columbia National Guard reports to the U.S. president, not the district's mayor , even when not federalized. Any or all of the National Guard can be federalized by presidential order and against the governor's wishes. The U.S. Army is led by a civilian secretary of the Army , who has

3321-670: Is that each brigade will be modular, i.e., all brigades of the same type will be exactly the same and thus any brigade can be commanded by any division. As specified before the 2013 end-strength re-definitions, the three major types of brigade combat teams are: In addition, there are combat support and service support modular brigades. Combat support brigades include aviation (CAB) brigades, which will come in heavy and light varieties, fires (artillery) brigades (now transforms to division artillery) and expeditionary military intelligence brigades . Combat service support brigades include sustainment brigades and come in several varieties and serve

3444-859: Is the oldest branch of the U.S. military and the most senior in order of precedence. It has its roots in the Continental Army , which was formed on 14 June 1775 to fight against the British for independence during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The United States Army considers itself

3567-403: Is to eliminate the enemy nation's national defenses to enable following bombers and missiles to threaten the enemy nation's strategic forces, command, and economy more realistically, rather than targeting mobile military assets in nearly real time by using tactical weapons that are optimized for time-sensitive strike missions that are often close to friendly forces. Tactical nuclear weapons were

3690-537: The Battle of 73 Easting were tank battles of historical significance. After Operation Desert Storm, the army did not see major combat operations for the remainder of the 1990s but did participate in a number of peacekeeping activities. In 1990 the Department of Defense issued guidance for "rebalancing" after a review of the Total Force Policy, but in 2004, USAF Air War College scholars concluded

3813-601: The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , as a result of the effectiveness and acceptability of USAF use of precision munitions with little collateral damage in the Kosovo conflict in what amounted to strategic destruction once only possible with nuclear weapons or massive bombing, Vladimir Putin , then-secretary of Security Council of Russia , formulated

AirLand Battle - Misplaced Pages Continue

3936-618: The F-22 ) to ensure air superiority for enabling those strikes. The result would stretch out the Warsaw Pact's advance in time, allowing the smaller NATO forces to continually attrit the enemy all along the battlefield while the reinforcements arrived piecemeal. The result was a single AirLand Battle. Although the focus of AirLand Battle was on conventional warfare, it did not ignore the threat of nuclear or chemical warfare. It suggested planning for nuclear strikes or chemical weapons use from

4059-707: The Netherlands and the United Kingdom , until the 1990s in anticipation of a possible Soviet attack. During the Cold War, U.S. troops and their allies fought communist forces in Korea and Vietnam . The Korean War began in June 1950, when the Soviets walked out of a UN Security Council meeting, removing their possible veto. Under a United Nations umbrella, hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops fought to prevent

4182-552: The Special Atomic Demolition Munition and the Davy Crockett recoilless rifle (recoilless smoothbore gun) have been developed, but the difficulty of combining sufficient yield with portability could limit their military utility. In wartime, such explosives could be used for demolishing "chokepoints" to enemy offensives, such as at tunnels , narrow mountain passes, and long viaducts . There

4305-494: The US and USSR withdrew most of their tactical nuclear weapons from deployment and disposed of them. The thousands of tactical warheads wielded by both sides in the late-1980s declined to an estimated 230 American and 1,000 to 2,000 Russian Federation warheads in 2021, although estimates for Russia vary widely. The yield varies for a tactical nuclear weapon from a fraction of a kiloton to approximately 50 kilotons. In comparison,

4428-632: The guerrilla hit and run tactics of the communist Viet Cong and the People's Army Of Vietnam (NVA) . During the 1960s, the Department of Defense continued to scrutinize the reserve forces and to question the number of divisions and brigades as well as the redundancy of maintaining two reserve components, the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve . In 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara decided that 15 combat divisions in

4551-469: The strategic bomber -launched SRAM II stand off missile. Modern tactical nuclear warheads have yields up to the tens of kilotons, or potentially hundreds, several times that of the weapons used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . Specifically on the Korean Peninsula , with a nuclear North Korea facing off against a NPT -compliant South Korea , there have been calls to request

4674-411: The "Reform Movement" and sought to overturn existing chains of command and introduce new weapons and tactics across the entire armed forces. The major driving force in the evolution of AirLand Battle was General Donn A. Starry , who had taken over TRADOC from DePuy in 1977 and had been the primary force in implementing Active Defense. Since its introduction Starry had been attempting to find solutions to

4797-460: The Army (HQDA): See Structure of the United States Army for a detailed treatment of the history , components , administrative and operational structure and the branches and functional areas of the Army. The U.S. Army is made up of three components: the active component, the Regular Army; and two reserve components, the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve. Both reserve components are primarily composed of part-time soldiers who train once

4920-522: The Army (SECARMY), and by a chief military officer , the chief of staff of the Army (CSA) who is also a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . It is the largest military branch, and in the fiscal year 2022, the projected end strength for the Regular Army (USA) was 480,893 soldiers; the Army National Guard (ARNG) had 336,129 soldiers and the U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) had 188,703 soldiers;

5043-472: The Army National Guard members were considered state militia until they were mobilized into the U.S. Army, typically at the onset of war. Since the 1933 amendment to the National Defense Act of 1916 , all Army National Guard soldiers have held dual status. They serve as National Guardsmen under the authority of the governor of their state or territory and as reserve members of the U.S. Army under

AirLand Battle - Misplaced Pages Continue

5166-411: The Army National Guard were unnecessary and cut the number to eight divisions (one mechanized infantry, two armored, and five infantry), but increased the number of brigades from seven to 18 (one airborne, one armored, two mechanized infantry and 14 infantry). The loss of the divisions did not sit well with the states. Their objections included the inadequate maneuver element mix for those that remained and

5289-399: The Army units moving from one blocking position to another in a series of largely static defenses, in the counter-blitz they would be far more mobile, conducting a series of limited offensives instead. Another difference was the role of the reserves; under Active Defense their role was very limited and even battlefield reserves were expected to be placed directly in the front, but under Patterns

5412-624: The British at Trenton and Princeton , but lost a series of battles in the New York and New Jersey campaign in 1776 and the Philadelphia campaign in 1777. With a decisive victory at Yorktown and the help of the French, the Continental Army prevailed against the British. After the war, the Continental Army was quickly given land certificates and disbanded in a reflection of the republican distrust of standing armies. State militias became

5535-461: The Canadian province of Upper Canada, British troops who had dubbed the U.S. Army "Regulars, by God!", were able to capture and burn Washington , which was defended by militia, in 1814. The regular army, however, proved they were professional and capable of defeating the British army during the invasions of Plattsburgh and Baltimore , prompting British agreement on the previously rejected terms of

5658-1007: The M1 Abrams, the Bradley Fighting/Cavalry Vehicle, the AH-64 Apache, the UH-60 Black Hawk, and the MIM-104 PATRIOT missile system. In addition to the aforementioned F-117, the Air Force's requirements for air interdiction against enemy rear-echelon forces would lead to the development of systems such as the Enhanced Tactical Fighter (or Dual-Role Fighter which would result in the F-15E ) with LANTIRN for deep strike and Advanced Tactical Fighter (which would result in

5781-545: The National Guard, while all states maintain regulations for state militias . State militias are both "organized", meaning that they are armed forces usually part of the state defense forces, or "unorganized" simply meaning that all able-bodied males may be eligible to be called into military service. The U.S. Army is also divided into several branches and functional areas . Branches include officers, warrant officers, and enlisted Soldiers while functional areas consist of officers who are reclassified from their former branch into

5904-585: The ORC and ERC were combined into the United States Army Reserve . The Army of the United States was re-established for the Korean War and Vietnam War and was demobilized upon the suspension of the draft . Currently, the Army is divided into the Regular Army , the Army Reserve, and the Army National Guard . Some states further maintain state defense forces , as a type of reserve to

6027-559: The Pentagon embraced a new doctrine: network-centric warfare , made possible by the Digital Revolution . "AirLand Battle" stands as part of the title of the sequel to Wargame: European Escalation , Wargame: AirLand Battle . The game is set in the Cold War when AirLand Battle was a major strategy of NATO, and pits the player playing as either a NATO commander or Warsaw Pact general leading military engagements against

6150-635: The Regular Army was reorganized as the Legion of the United States , established in 1791 and renamed the United States Army in 1796. In 1798, during the Quasi-War with France, the U.S. Congress established a three-year " Provisional Army " of 10,000 men, consisting of twelve regiments of infantry and six troops of light dragoons . In March 1799, Congress created an "Eventual Army" of 30,000 men, including three regiments of cavalry . Both "armies" existed only on paper, but equipment for 3,000 men and horses

6273-663: The Southwest. Grant took command of Union forces in 1864 and after a series of battles with very heavy casualties, he had General Robert E. Lee under siege in Richmond as General William T. Sherman captured Atlanta and marched through Georgia and the Carolinas . The Confederate capital was abandoned in April 1865 and Lee subsequently surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House. All other Confederate armies surrendered within

SECTION 50

#1732772617042

6396-456: The US air power had been directed against supply buildup and movement points; roads, bridges, supply depots and the like. Attacking these targets with conventional weapons was an expensive process, requiring considerable amounts of ordnance to be expended to guarantee a "hit". In the late 1960s and early 1970s the introduction of smart weapons allowed conventional forces to directly attack point targets like bridges and roads, dramatically improving

6519-540: The United States (the "Union" or "the North") formed the Union Army , consisting of a small body of regular army units and a large body of volunteer units raised from every state, north and south, except South Carolina . For the first two years, Confederate forces did well in set battles but lost control of the border states. The Confederates had the advantage of defending a large territory in an area where disease caused twice as many deaths as combat. The Union pursued

6642-405: The United States Army was maintained as a small peacetime force to man permanent forts and perform other non-wartime duties such as engineering and construction works. During times of war, the U.S. Army was augmented by the much larger United States Volunteers which were raised independently by various state governments. States also maintained full-time militias which could also be called into

6765-826: The United States of America.‌ The United States Army serves as the land-based branch of the U.S. Armed Forces . Section 7062 of Title 10, U.S. Code defines the purpose of the army as: In 2018, the Army Strategy 2018 articulated an eight-point addendum to the Army Vision for 2028. While the Army Mission remains constant, the Army Strategy builds upon the Army's Brigade Modernization by adding focus to corps and division -level echelons. The Army Futures Command oversees reforms geared toward conventional warfare . The Army's current reorganization plan

6888-487: The Warsaw Pact as a pre-emptive move to create the defensive buffer zone in Soviet territory necessary to prevent a Soviet incursion, thus increasing the possibility that Warsaw Pact forces could have decided to make the first aggressive move themselves to forgo that attack, thus increasing the risk of war. In 1976 Colonel John Boyd presented Patterns of Conflict , a study outlining a number of historical matchups in which

7011-403: The ability to interdict the enemy, while at the same time allowing the aircraft to operate from safer, higher altitudes. These had little real impact during Vietnam when they were still very new, but their potential was obvious. Starting in the early 1970s the Air Force took its first steps at looking at a conventional war in Europe. In late 1975, RAND Corporation completed a study that examined

7134-423: The acquisition process for the future. In order to support the Army's modernization priorities, its FY2020 budget allocated $ 30 billion for the top six modernization priorities over the next five years. The $ 30 billion came from $ 8 billion in cost avoidance and $ 22 billion in terminations. The task of organizing the U.S. Army commenced in 1775. In the first one hundred years of its existence,

7257-491: The agreement, both the United States and Egypt agreed that there would be a joint military training led by both countries that would usually take place every 2 years, that exercise is known as Exercise Bright Star . The 1980s was mostly a decade of reorganization. The Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 created unified combatant commands bringing the army together with the other four military services under unified, geographically organized command structures. The army also played

7380-650: The army began acquiring fixed-wing aircraft . In 1910, during the Mexican Revolution , the army was deployed to U.S. towns near the border to ensure the safety of lives and property. In 1916, Pancho Villa , a major rebel leader, attacked Columbus, New Mexico , prompting a U.S. intervention in Mexico until 7 February 1917. They fought the rebels and the Mexican federal troops until 1918. The United States joined World War I as an "Associated Power" in 1917 on

7503-567: The authority of the president, in the Army National Guard of the United States. Since the adoption of the total force policy, in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, reserve component soldiers have taken a more active role in U.S. military operations. For example, Reserve and Guard units took part in the Gulf War , peacekeeping in Kosovo , Afghanistan, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq . [REDACTED] Headquarters, United States Department of

SECTION 60

#1732772617042

7626-403: The beginning of combat, using them as a threat from the start that would force the enemy to disperse his forces or run the risk of a nuclear strike as they concentrated. The plans did, however, suggest they only be used if first attacked in kind. The overall message conveyed by the AirLand Battle concept of 1981 was that the Army must leave behind the restricted notion of winning the fight only in

7749-412: The border between East and West Germany, in what became known as " Forward Defense ". As reinforcements from the US could play only a minor role, the war was a "come as you are" affair. Air power was key; as the battle increased in tempo and the Soviet forces attempted to break through the defenders, channels would naturally form that would be attacked by air. A 1975 study showed that: One problem that

7872-439: The building, as part of the September 11 attacks . In response to the 11 September attacks and as part of the Global War on Terror , U.S. and NATO forces invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, displacing the Taliban government. The U.S. Army also led the combined U.S. and allied invasion of Iraq in 2003; it served as the primary source for ground forces with its ability to sustain short and long-term deployment operations. In

7995-409: The close coordination between the Army and Air Force to produce an integrated attack plan that would use the land forces in a counter-blitz while air power, artillery and special operation forces stopped the movement of the reserves toward the front line. To achieve this, both the Army and Air Force embarked on equipment modernization programs. The Army's effort was collectively called the "Big Five":

8118-466: The combatant commanders for use as directed by the secretary of defense. By 2013, the army shifted to six geographical commands that align with the six geographical unified combatant commands (CCMD): The army also transformed its base unit from divisions to brigades . Division lineage will be retained, but the divisional headquarters will be able to command any brigade, not just brigades that carry their divisional lineage. The central part of this plan

8241-447: The combined-component strength of the U.S. Army was 1,005,725 soldiers. As a branch of the armed forces, the mission of the U.S. Army is "to fight and win our Nation's wars, by providing prompt, sustained land dominance, across the full range of military operations and the spectrum of conflict, in support of combatant commanders ". The branch participates in conflicts worldwide and is the major ground-based offensive and defensive force of

8364-414: The defence strategy as militarily senseless, used only because an effective defense in depth doctrine was considered politically unacceptable to West Germany since that would mean much of the country would have been overrun by Warsaw Pact forces in an invasion before they could be stopped. As a result of the political compromise, a concerted Warsaw Pact invasion would likely have been able to break through

8487-401: The doctrine had been understood across the Iron Curtain. Marshal Gorkov knew that the Soviets were in trouble. DTRA chief Jim Tegnelia opines that AirLand Battle was the child of "the marriage of a policy problem, a good strategy and technology. When they are put together in resonance can create very synergistic and revolutionary effects with regard to military operations." From 1993 onward,

8610-559: The end of FY2017. From 2016 to 2017, the Army retired hundreds of OH-58 Kiowa Warrior observation helicopters, while retaining its Apache gunships. The 2015 expenditure for Army research, development and acquisition changed from $ 32 billion projected in 2012 for FY15 to $ 21 billion for FY15 expected in 2014. By 2017, a task force was formed to address Army modernization, which triggered shifts of units: CCDC , and ARCIC , from within Army Materiel Command (AMC), and Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), respectively, to

8733-439: The end to the practice of rotating divisional commands among the states that supported them. Under the proposal, the remaining division commanders were to reside in the state of the division base. However, no reduction in total Army National Guard strength was to take place, which convinced the governors to accept the plan. The states reorganized their forces accordingly between 1 December 1967 and 1 May 1968. The Total Force Policy

8856-579: The entire defensive position. As the Vietnam War wound down, the US Army started studying their organization and structure, looking for ways to better align it with real-world conflicts. The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) , under the direction of General William E. DePuy , was formed in 1973 to study these issues and produce updated doctrine for Army forces. TRADOC concluded that there were two main possibilities for future conflicts,

8979-447: The first few massive battles. As Field Manual 100-5 noted, "The US Army must above all else, prepare to win the first battle of the next war." Since forces from the rear could not move forward quickly enough to take part in the titanic battles being envisioned, everyone had to be placed as close to the front lines as possible. The result was a new battlefield organization that moved the vast majority of US and allied forces much closer to

9102-580: The following years, the mission changed from conflict between regular militaries to counterinsurgency , resulting in the deaths of more than 4,000 U.S. service members (as of March 2008) and injuries to thousands more. 23,813 insurgents were killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2011. Until 2009, the army's chief modernization plan, its most ambitious since World War II, was the Future Combat Systems program. In 2009, many systems were canceled, and

9225-532: The forces that landed in French North Africa and took Tunisia and then moved on to Sicily and later fought in Italy . In the June 1944 landings in northern France and in the subsequent liberation of Europe and defeat of Nazi Germany , millions of U.S. Army troops played a central role. In 1947, the number of soldiers in the US Army had decreased from eight million in 1945 to 684,000 soldiers and

9348-544: The front. Blitzkrieg aimed at forcing the enemy into a continuous battle of maneuver instead of an outright fight, bypassing any strongly defended areas and extending into their rear. To guarantee supply movement and avoid being encircled, the enemy is forced to retreat in an attempt to reform continuous defensive lines. The traditional method of dealing with an armored breakthrough was to pick away at its sides, forcing it to maneuver away to find less-defended areas of advance. If these spoiling attacks can be set up on both sides of

9471-685: The geographical status quo. Both navies kept the warships they had seized during the conflict. The army's major campaign against the Indians was fought in Florida against Seminoles . It took long wars (1818–1858) to finally defeat the Seminoles and move them to Oklahoma. The usual strategy in Indian wars was to seize control of the Indians' winter food supply, but that was no use in Florida where there

9594-415: The guidance would reverse the Total Force Policy which is an "essential ingredient to the successful application of military force". On 11 September 2001, 53 Army civilians (47 employees and six contractors) and 22 soldiers were among the 125 victims killed in the Pentagon in a terrorist attack when American Airlines Flight 77 commandeered by five Al-Qaeda hijackers slammed into the western side of

9717-771: The last of the American Indian Wars . U.S. Army troops also occupied several Southern states during the Reconstruction Era to protect freedmen . The key battles of the Spanish–American War of 1898 were fought by the Navy. Using mostly new volunteers , the U.S. forces defeated Spain in land campaigns in Cuba and played the central role in the Philippine–American War . Starting in 1910,

9840-568: The lowest selectable yield of a tactical B61 (Mod 3 and Mod 4) is 0.3 kilotons (300 tons), modern PAL mechanisms ensure that centralized political control is maintained over each weapon, including their destructive yields. With the introduction of the B61 Mod 12, the United States will have four hundred identical nuclear bombs whose strategic or tactical nature will be set purely by the mission and target as well as type of aircraft on which they are carried. According to several reports, including by

9963-406: The massive amounts of information the new C3I assets would be generating. Prior to the 1970s the air forces had been seen primarily as for strategic bombing, delivery of tactical nuclear weapons, or for attacks on enemy air forces. Their counterpart to FM 100-5 listed only eight missions, only one of which required direct interaction with the Army forces in the field. During the Vietnam War much of

10086-532: The massive numerical superiority of the Warsaw Pact was the reverse of the numbers during the Bulge. Additionally, the concentration of low-mobility forces that formed the channelizing groups would invite nuclear strikes. Instead of meeting the Blitzkrieg head-on, Boyd suggested what he called the "counter-blitz", where small groups of equally mobile forces would pick away at the lines of thrust and then move on to

10209-462: The merits of additional crewed aircraft, remotely piloted vehicles, and stand-off munitions for improving air-ground capability in NATO. A follow-up two-day workshop at RAND studied what vulnerabilities the Warsaw Pact might have to NATO airpower, which was followed by a series of additional studies that clearly demonstrated their reliance on the continued movement of supplies. Air planners were beginning to look for ways to best employ these new weapons at

10332-449: The new army. A number of European soldiers came on their own to help, such as Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben , who taught Prussian Army tactics and organizational skills. The Army fought numerous pitched battles, and sometimes used Fabian strategy and hit-and-run tactics in the South in 1780 and 1781; under Major General Nathanael Greene , it hit where the British were weakest to wear down their forces. Washington led victories against

10455-608: The new nation's sole ground army, except a regiment to guard the Western Frontier and one battery of artillery guarding West Point 's arsenal. However, because of continuing conflict with Native Americans , it was soon considered necessary to field a trained standing army. The Regular Army was at first very small and after General St. Clair's defeat at the Battle of the Wabash, where more than 800 soldiers were killed,

10578-427: The next in a series of hit-and-run attacks. There was no necessity to retain any sort of front line, and the attacks deliberately moved from point to point to avoid being bogged down or getting trapped. The idea was not to force the blitz to lose its ability to maneuver, but instead upset its ability to understand where it should be maneuvering to—the attacker would have no idea which of these counteroffensives represented

10701-408: The novel weapons programs. The extended battlefield noted that different commanders had different views of the battlefield in geographical terms. The brigade commander had to consider actions beyond the immediate front lines, up to 15 km into the enemy's rear where his artillery was operating. The division commander considered the battlefield as far as 70 km out, while the corps commander had

10824-554: The other alliance. The sequel introduces fixed-wing aircraft units to the game that was previously limited to land units and helicopters . United States Army The United States Army ( USA ) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces . It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services , and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution . The Army

10947-633: The problems of the enemy's reserves, and had been developing the concept of the "extended battlefield". This was a far more aggressive strategy, and required of the Army to fly its own CAS attack aircraft like the A-10 and the AH-64 , as well as to better integrate USAF high-boy capabilities. It also gave birth to HIMARS , Bradley IFV , M109 Paladin , Patriot missile , M1 Abrams , and the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk . President Carter approved

11070-545: The protection of Saudi Arabia . In January 1991 Operation Desert Storm commenced, a U.S.-led coalition which deployed over 500,000 troops, the bulk of them from U.S. Army formations, to drive out Iraqi forces . The campaign ended in total victory, as Western coalition forces routed the Iraqi Army . Some of the largest tank battles in history were fought during the Gulf war. The Battle of Medina Ridge , Battle of Norfolk and

11193-467: The purpose of military operations can not be simply to avert defeat—but rather it must be to win. AirLand Battle became the primary battleplan of US forces in 1982, and NATO forces in 1984, with the help of SACEUR General Bernard W. Rogers . Its roll-out required upgrades to the CI equipment of all branches of the military, along with similar changes in the command and control structures to take advantage of

11316-698: The remaining were swept into the BCT modernization program . By 2017, the Brigade Modernization project was completed and its headquarters, the Brigade Modernization Command, was renamed the Joint Modernization Command, or JMC. In response to Budget sequestration in 2013 , Army plans were to shrink to 1940 levels, although actual Active-Army end-strengths were projected to fall to some 450,000 troops by

11439-619: The reserves could be introduced where and when they became available, and be just as effective as the troops that had been there from the start. Boyd felt that the continual pattern of harassment and shifting positions could continue throughout a conflict, as opposed to attempting to win the entire war at the front in a single battle. When Boyd introduced the concept, the Pentagon was being led by power groups that new inductees considered hidebound and moribund. As illustrated in The Pentagon Wars , Boyd and like-minded up-and-comers formed

11562-547: The route of attack, the armored spearhead is forced into an ever-decreasing frontage, eventually being pinched off and losing the ability to maneuver. The classic example of a successful anti-Blitzkrieg was during the Battle of the Bulge , where US units repeatedly forced the German spearhead inward, eventually pinching it off just short of the Meuse River . However, this approach required the forces to be deployed in depth, and

11685-507: The same time Starry was working on the extended battlefield concepts. Simultaneously, the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Bill Perry was interested in "stealth, precision and speed"; and one of their developments was the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk , an airplane designed to evade detection by the Soviets and strike ground targets such as tanks, anti-aircraft radar systems and missile complexes. Starry emphasized

11808-605: The service chiefs from each of the four military services belonging to the Department of Defense who advise the president of the United States , the secretary of defense and the National Security Council on operational military matters, under the guidance of the chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . In 1986, the Goldwater–Nichols Act mandated that operational control of

11931-489: The service of the army. By the twentieth century, the U.S. Army had mobilized the U.S. Volunteers on four occasions during each of the major wars of the nineteenth century. During World War I, the " National Army " was organized to fight the conflict, replacing the concept of U.S. Volunteers. It was demobilized at the end of World War I and was replaced by the Regular Army, the Organized Reserve Corps, and

12054-456: The services follows a chain of command from the president to the secretary of defense directly to the unified combatant commanders , who have control of all armed forces units in their geographic or function area of responsibility, thus the secretaries of the military departments (and their respective service chiefs underneath them) only have the responsibility to organize, train and equip their service components. The army provides trained forces to

12177-533: The side of Britain , France , Russia , Italy and the other Allies . U.S. troops were sent to the Western Front and were involved in the last offensives that ended the war. With the armistice in November 1918, the army once again decreased its forces. In 1939, estimates of the Army's strength ranged between 174,000 and 200,000 soldiers, smaller than that of Portugal 's, which ranked it 17th or 19th in

12300-514: The smallest types have been completely eliminated. Additionally, the increased sophistication of "Category F" PAL mechanisms and their associated communications infrastructure mean that centralized control of tactical nuclear warheads (by the country's most senior political leaders) can now be retained, even during combat. Some variable yield nuclear warheads such as the B61 nuclear bomb have been produced in both tactical and strategic versions. Whereas

12423-707: The standard support role in an army. The U.S. Army's conventional combat capability currently consists of 11 active divisions and 1 deployable division headquarters (7th Infantry Division) as well as several independent maneuver units. Tactical nuclear weapon Tactical nuclear weapons include gravity bombs , short-range missiles , artillery shells , land mines , depth charges , and torpedoes which are equipped with nuclear warheads. Also in this category are nuclear armed ground-based or shipborne surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and air-to-air missiles . Small, two-man portable or truck-portable tactical weapons (sometimes misleadingly referred to as suitcase nukes ), such as

12546-443: The state militias. In the 1920s and 1930s, the "career" soldiers were known as the " Regular Army " with the "Enlisted Reserve Corps" and "Officer Reserve Corps" augmented to fill vacancies when needed. In 1941, the " Army of the United States " was founded to fight World War II. The Regular Army, Army of the United States, the National Guard, and Officer/Enlisted Reserve Corps (ORC and ERC) existed simultaneously. After World War II,

12669-545: The states of California , Nevada , Utah , Colorado , Arizona , Wyoming and New Mexico . The American Civil War was the costliest war for the U.S. in terms of casualties. After most slave states , located in the southern U.S., formed the Confederate States , the Confederate States Army , led by former U.S. Army officers, mobilized a large fraction of Southern white manpower. Forces of

12792-412: The statutory authority to conduct all the affairs of the army under the authority, direction, and control of the secretary of defense . The chief of staff of the Army , who is the highest-ranked military officer in the army, serves as the principal military adviser and executive agent for the secretary of the Army, i.e., its service chief; and as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , a body composed of

12915-539: The tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. As of 2012 , NATO was moving forward with a plan to upgrade its tactical nuclear weapons with precision guidance that would make them equivalent to strategic weapons in effects against hardened targets, and to carry them on stealth aircraft that are much more survivable against current air defenses. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine , there has been constant speculation about whether Russia 's president Vladimir Putin will use

13038-402: The tactical nuclear weapons most likely to be used first (i.e., the smallest, low-yield weapons such as nuclear artillery dating from the 1960s) have usually been under less stringent political control at times of military combat crises than strategic weapons. Early Permissive action links (PALs) could be as simple as a mechanical combination lock. If a relatively junior officer in control of

13161-594: The takeover of South Korea by North Korea and later to invade the northern nation. After repeated advances and retreats by both sides and the Chinese People's Volunteer Army 's entry into the war, the Korean Armistice Agreement returned the peninsula to the status quo in July 1953. The Vietnam War is often regarded as a low point for the U.S. Army due to the use of drafted personnel ,

13284-472: The thin defensive zone with their numerically superior conventional forces easily, which would have soon forced NATO to resort to tactical nuclear weapons to counter it, which would have likely escalated the war to a full-scale global nuclear war . Furthermore, the doctrine was considered by the Warsaw Pact to be a threatening policy, which they feared would have meant an inverted in-depth defence by NATO in an aggressive fashion which could have entailed invading

13407-718: The total number of active divisions had dropped from 89 to 12. The leaders of the Army saw this demobilization as a success. In the Pacific War , U.S. Army soldiers participated alongside the United States Marine Corps in capturing the Pacific Islands from Japanese control. Following the Axis surrenders in May (Germany) and August (Japan) of 1945, army troops were deployed to Japan and Germany to occupy

13530-648: The traditional "main battle area." AirLand Battle was first promulgated in the 1982 version of FM 100-5, and revised for the FM 100-5 version of 1986, which added the Follow-on Forces Attack concept. The doctrine, unbeknownst at the time, turned out to be a success psychologically on the Warsaw Pact. In 1992, after the USSR had collapsed , at a friendly dinner of old adversaries an East German general said to an American diplomat that "We had no options left" after

13653-1039: The two defeated nations. Two years after World War II, the Army Air Forces separated from the army to become the United States Air Force in September 1947. In 1948, the army was desegregated by order 9981 of President Harry S. Truman . The end of World War II set the stage for the East–West confrontation known as the Cold War . With the outbreak of the Korean War , concerns over the defense of Western Europe rose. Two corps, V and VII , were reactivated under Seventh United States Army in 1950 and U.S. strength in Europe rose from one division to four. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops remained stationed in West Germany, with others in Belgium ,

13776-620: The unpopularity of the war with the U.S. public and frustrating restrictions placed on the military by U.S. political leaders. While U.S. forces had been stationed in South Vietnam since 1959, in intelligence and advising/training roles, they were not deployed in large numbers until 1965, after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident . U.S. forces effectively established and maintained control of the "traditional" battlefield, but they struggled to counter

13899-402: The victor was able to disrupt the "observation-orientation-decision-action time cycle or loop" of their enemy. This, he stated, made them "appear ambiguous (unpredictable) thereby generate confusion and disorder". His primary example of such action was the Blitzkrieg, where highly mobile forces were quickly concentrated at small points and then used to force a number of simultaneous thrusts through

14022-399: The weapons than it was about the ability to command them; it was believed that the U.S.' devolved command structure would be able to react to changes on the battlefield more quickly than their Soviet counterparts, overwhelming the Soviets ability to maintain cohesion as their higher-echelon commanders became overwhelmed with reports from so many small actions. Whereas Active Defense envisioned

14145-505: The weapons. As of May 2023 the weapons are a small number of Iskander missile warheads. Russia plans to finish a “storage facility” for tactical nuclear weapons by July 1. President Putin told Russian state television: "There is nothing unusual here either…Firstly, the United States has been doing this for decades. They have long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries ." In December 2023, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko announced that

14268-583: The world in size. General George C. Marshall became Army chief of staff in September 1939 and set about expanding and modernizing the Army in preparation for war. The United States joined World War II in December 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . Some 11 million Americans were to serve in various Army operations. On the European front , U.S. Army troops formed a significant portion of

14391-523: Was adopted by Chief of Staff of the Army General Creighton Abrams in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and involved treating the three components of the army – the Regular Army , the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve as a single force. General Abrams' intertwining of the three components of the army effectively made extended operations impossible without the involvement of both the Army National Guard and Army Reserve in

14514-573: Was created on 14 June 1775 by the Second Continental Congress as a unified army for the colonies to fight Great Britain , with George Washington appointed as its commander. The army was initially led by men who had served in the British Army or colonial militias and who brought much of British military heritage with them. As the Revolutionary War progressed, French aid, resources, and military thinking helped shape

14637-469: Was itself replaced by " Full Spectrum Operations " in 2001. The basic concept of the Blitzkrieg and similar doctrines was for the attacker to secretly concentrate his forces across a limited frontage to gain a local superiority over the defenders, culminating in an attack with at least tactical surprise leading to a breakthrough, which is then rapidly exploited to threaten the rear areas and destabilize

14760-498: Was no winter. The second strategy was to form alliances with other Indian tribes, but that too was useless because the Seminoles had destroyed all the other Indians when they entered Florida in the late eighteenth century. The U.S. Army fought and won the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), which was a defining event for both countries. The U.S. victory resulted in acquisition of territory that eventually became all or parts of

14883-549: Was noted soon after the introduction of the 1976 version of FM 100-5 was how to deal with the enemy's reserve forces in the rear. There was the possibility that the US could win the first battle, only to meet a second unattrited reserve force soon after. A solution to this problem was not immediately forthcoming. The results of war gaming the Active Defense doctrine was that by using this doctrine "you would lose every time." Military historian Gwynne Dyer also criticized

15006-590: Was procured and stored. The War of 1812 , the second and last war between the United States and Great Britain, had mixed results. The U.S. Army did not conquer Canada but it did destroy Native American resistance to expansion in the Old Northwest and stopped two major British invasions in 1814 and 1815. After taking control of Lake Erie in 1813, the U.S. Army seized parts of western Upper Canada, burned York and defeated Tecumseh , which caused his Western Confederacy to collapse. Following U.S. victories in

15129-540: Was the result of studies in nuclear weapon employment at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in December 1979. These studies demonstrated that interdiction in the enemy's rear could seriously delay the movements of the rear echelon forces and create "time windows" during which the US would have the tactical advantage. By ensuring that the command structure was aware of the time dimension of the battlefield, they would be better prepared to take advantage of these windows when they occurred. When Active Defense had been introduced in 1976 it faced

#41958