Concept and Organization of the IBCT Engineer Company

Engineer: The Professional Bulletin for Army Engineers, May, 2001 by Major Anthony O. Wright

The Army Transformation is highly visible at Fort Lewis, Washington, and no more so than with the engineers. From the first announcement on Transformation by Army Chief of Staff General Eric K. Shinseki, in October 1999, the engineers at Fort Lewis began work in earnest, receiving new personnel and equipment and turning in their legacy equipment. In September of last year, A Company, 168th Engineer Battalion, became the 18th Engineer Company--the first Interim Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) engineer company.

Structure

The structure of the engineer company in the IBCT is unique in the Engineer Regiment. It is a carefully tailored organization with a focused set of missions. It is important to understand the concept and mission of the IBCT and the engineer company's role within the brigade in order to understand its structure.

The brigade is designed as a full-spectrum early-entry combat force, optimized primarily for small-scale contingency operations in complex and urban environments. [1] The organizational and operational (O&O) concept emphasizes the need to balance the strategic responsiveness of the brigade against the requirements for battlespace dominance in determining the organizational structure. The organization must balance deployability, sustainability, and the in-theater footprint with lethality, mobility, and survivability. The IBCT's effectiveness is further enhanced by a design based on embedded unit capabilities--military-intelligence, signal, engineer, antitank, artillery, and combat-service-support (CSS) elements--that have been tailored specifically to the unique requirements of the unit's set of missions.

The brigade is an infantry-centric force with three motorized infantry battalions; a reconnaissance, surveillance, and target-acquisition squadron; an artillery battalion; a brigade support battalion (BSB); an antitank company; a signal company; a military-intelligence (MI) company; and the 18th Engineer Company (see Figure 1).

The organization and role of the engineer company is reflective of the embedded-unit-capability concept. When balancing the myriad missions an engineer unit may face against the deployability and sustainability of the brigade, the designers of the engineer company tailored the company to focus on providing mobility support to the brigade. Limited countermobility, survivability, and general-engineering capabilities are made possible using the same force structure required for the mobility mission. The engineer company supports the movement of combat forces to achieve a position of advantage with respect to enemy forces. Mobility operations maintain freedom of movement for personnel and equipment within the area of operations without delays due to terrain, barriers, obstacles, or mines. Combat mobility platoons are task-organized to maneuver elements to provide mobility support to mounted-maneuver, dismounted-assault, and urban operations. [2]

This focus on mobility support is evident in the company organization. The company is composed of three mobility platoons--each with three squads--and a mobility-support platoon with three sections. Figure 2, page 8, shows the objective organization and equipment.

The company has some limitations that are recognized in the O&O concept and its focus on mobility operations. The company has limited capability to support the brigade in major-theater wars or stability or support operations. In these environments, the IBCT requires additional engineer augmentation from the division or echelons above division.

Equipment

Each mobility squad will have an engineer squad vehicle (ESV), which is a variant of the infantry carrier vehicle. The ESV will be equipped with a remote weapon station M2 .50-caliber machine gun and mounted with obstacle-neutralization kits. The composition of the kits is not finalized, but it should include lightweight mine plows or rollers, a magnetic signature duplicator, and a minefield-marking system. Selection and delivery of the interim armored vehicle (IAV) is a future event. In the meantime, the company received nine light medium tactical vehicles (LMTVs), which are 2 1/2-ton cargo trucks equipped with advanced Single-Channel, Ground-to-Air Radio Systems (SINCGARSs) and situational-awareness systems to serve as surrogate squad vehicles until its ESVs are fielded.

Six of the nine ESVs tow mine-clearing line charges (MICLICs) and three tow Volcanos. To replicate the Volcano systems called for in the objective structure, the company mounted a four-panel Volcano system to a trailer. The Engineer School and Volcano product manager supported this endeavor by coordinating for safety testing and release at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland. The company is now able to replicate this capability while supporting the IBCT. The future system will be an M200 trailer-mounted Volcano that has recently been type-classified.

The company will eventually receive the Rapidly Emplaced Bridge System (REBS), which will provide responsive military load class (MLC) 30 gap-crossing capability for the brigade. Until the arrival of the REBS, the four common bridge transporters (CBT) in the engineer company are carrying medium-girder bridges, which provide 14.3 meters of MLC 30 bridging. This causes the only difference in personnel authorization between the current and objective structure, adding a military occupational specialty 12C30 to provide technical expertise on bridging.