Transitioning to the Bradley

Engineer: The Professional Bulletin for Army Engineers, May, 2001 by Captain Jason Kirk, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey A. Bedey

As our Army begins the journey of Transformation, the other major developmental initiative--Force XXI--has matured into a combat-ready organization. Early in FY02, the Army's first Force XXI division, the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized), Fort Hood, Texas, will assign its 1st Brigade Combat Team--with its organic 299th Engineer Battalion--the division ready-brigade mission. This mission is one in a long line of critical missions that the 1st Brigade and the "Proven Pioneers" of the 299th have completed for the Army over the past decade. From March 1994 to December 2000, the Force XXI 1st Brigade and the 299th have experimented, tested, and now fielded Force XXI digital systems. The 299th reorganized under two significant modified table of organization and equipment (MTOE) changes as the conservative heavy-division design evolved. The 299th--along with A Company, 588th Engineer Battalion--also deployed the Army's first Bradley fighting vehicle-equipped engineer company to the National Training Center. The si gnificant lessons learned during all of these missions are vital to the Engineer Regiment as additional combat-engineer battalions become digital and as the Force XXI engineer able of organization and equipment (TOE) evolves again with the fielding of the M2A2 Operation Desert Storm-Engineer ODS-E) Bradley.

Fundamental to the Force XXI concept is a smaller force hat achieves increased lethality through enabling systems. The force-structure decrease has taken the mechanized division from an 18,000-soldier organization to one with just over 15,000 soldiers. The divisional combat-engineer battalion has downsized from 442 soldiers to 288 as of the FY01 TOE. (This number is 312 in the FY02 TOE, which includes manning for the yet-to-be-fielded Grizzly breacher (see article, page 36). Critical enablers fielded within the 299th Engineer Battalion include the digital command-and-control systems--the Maneuver Control System (MCS) and the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) System. The other vital enabler in the 299th is the engineer scout platoon. These digital systems and the well-resourced and trained engineer scout platoon have enabled the Force XXI combat engineers to truly do more with less--and do it better--as they support the maneuver brigade fight across an expanded battlespace.

The increased situational awareness that the commander achieves through the MCS at the battalion tactical-operations center and the FBCB2 System mounted on all combat vehicles enables increased reliance and more efficient use of dynamic obstacles throughout the battlespace in both offensive and defensive operations. This increased situational awareness--shared throughout the digitized force--also greatly decreases the likelihood of casualties from mine strikes. (Information on observed enemy obstacles, as well as planned or emplaced friendly obstacles, is shared instantaneously.)

There are two critical areas where the Force XXI engineer battalion has made reductions--manpower and equipment. Additionally, the Force XXI engineer battalion no longer has an organic support platoon that provides maintenance, foodservice, and distribution functions. Rather, the supporting forward-support battalion--in the form of an engineer support element--provides these logistical functions. As the 299th adopted this leaner organization, it developed methods to improve combat-engineer operations:

* In offensive operations, combat-engineer platoons continued to provide effective mobility support by increased reliance on mechanical, as well as explosive, breaching with each squad towing a mine-clearing line charge (MICLIC). Command and control of breaching operations is better in that the sapper platoon sergeant is now forward--mounted in the platoon's fourth Ml 13 armored personnel carrier. The 299th developed the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) of always organizing sapper platoons in breaching stacks, with each stack consisting of a proofing blade (Ml tank plow), a sapper squad with a MICLIC, the platoon leader or platoon sergeant for command and control, a Wolverine/armored vehicle-launched bridge (AVLB), and an M9 armored combat earthmover (ACE). Force XXI engineers are able to provide better mobility support by immediately broadcasting a "breach-lane-report overlay" or a "scatterable-mine bypass-report overlay" to all FBCB2 System-equipped units in the maneuver brigade. The engineer scout platoon further reduces our reliance on conventional breaching methods by providing detailed mobility intelligence.

The Force XXI combat-engineer platoon has two sapper squads, not three.

* In defensive operations, increased situational awareness and focused training enabled the 299th to deliver better synchronized countermobility effort with no decrease in linear frontage covered (cited by National Training Center engineer trainers) despite having fewer sappers on the ground. Increased planning synchronization achieved through the Digital Terrain Support System, the MCS, and the FBCB2 System facilitated more effective employment of the full menu of scatterable mines--ground- and air-delivered Volcanos, artillery-delivered aerial denial artillery amunitions/remote antiarmor mines (ADAMs/RAAMs), air-delivered Gators, and ground-emplaced Hornets and Modular Pack Mine Systems (MOPMSs). Countermobility training focused on scatterable-mine employment, putting the obstacles at the right place at the right time. The engineer scout platoon trained to effectively employ the Hornet and MOPMS munitions, the line companies focused training on ground-delivered Volcano and MOPMS employment, and the battalio n's engineer-support-area personnel (led by the battalion S4) trained to serve as a launching and reload point for air-delivered Volcano platforms. The Force XXI digital systems, coupled with this focused training effort, enabled the 299th to achieve the Force XXI imperative to shape the battlespace.