54th Engineer Battalion FEMs

Engineer: The Professional Bulletin for Army Engineers, May, 2001 by Lieutenant Colonel Bill Rapp

Currently, the combat-engineer contribution to the rapid-deployment capability of USAREUR is the "Sapper FEM." This package consists of four M113A3 armored personnel carriers and a robotic, trailer-mounted miniflail. A line platoon from the divisional engineer battalion of the "ready" Brigade Combat Team rotates monthly to perform the Sapper FEM mission. The platoon comes to the fight with its usual complement of AN/PSS- 12 mine detectors, demolitions kits, and selected pioneer tools. This platoon has no specific training on robotic mine-clearing vehicles like the miniflail and has the training and equipment necessary to conduct only rudimentary, nondigital engineer recon.

While the current Sapper FEM provides the MIRC or HIRC commander with critical mobility skills in an austere environment, the package has serious shortcomings. In addition to supporting USAREUR's IRF, the 54th Engineer Battalion's relationship with SETAF has generated several new requirements for engineer forces that cry out for rapidly deployable packages of engineer capability not offered by its organic light sapper detachment. The intent of the 54th Engineer Battalion's Engineer Reconnaissance FEM and Countermine FEM is to provide USAREUR's initial-entry force with additional tools greatly needed to facilitate follow-on-force entry into EUCOM's area of operations.

Engineer Reconnaissance FEM. In order to bring heavier forces into the area of responsibility, rapid but thorough recon of transportation infrastructure is essential. As USAREUR found when bringing forces into Kosovo through Albania in 1999, detailed recon of routes, bridges, water crossings, and critical facilities is a first step in heavy-force entry. That kind of recon, with the capability to send data and photos of critical structures back to experts in both EUCOM and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, does not currently exist as a planned package for rapid deployment. The Engineer Reconnaissance FEM provides that capability on one C-130 transport.

The Engineer Reconnaissance FEM centers on a suite of automations and communications equipment known commercially as the Penmap system, which is on hand in the 54th Engineer Battalion. The following features, shown in the photo above, comprise this reconnaissance system.

Laser binoculars, called Vipers, attached to a standard precision lightweight Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver (PLGR), give precise grid coordinates of lased objects. The Viper's internal software package also computes bridge heights, facility widths, road slopes, and a host of other critical measurements. The Windows-based computer, currently loaded with Penmap software and with an associated Sunscreen handheld display, allows the operator to write directly on a digital map of the area while simultaneously recording key measurements on digital forms. Digital still and video cameras capture photographs of facilities and key structural members for reach-back analysis by nondeployed subject-matter experts. All of the digital information thus recorded--the measurements and images--can be transmitted through both a standard Single-Channel, Ground-to-Air Radio System (SINCGARS) using DataBurst or through the deployable Tele-Engineering Suite that will be part of the Engineer Reconnaissance FEM.

Six soldiers, two M998 HMMWVs, and one 3/4-ton trailer make up the base configuration of the Engineer Reconnaissance FEM. An engineer lieutenant leads the team and is focused on coordination with the IRF leadership, tactical employment of the team, and logistics. Two separate recon teams, each led by an engineer sergeant and assisted by a military occupational specialty (MOS) 12B sapper, conduct the actual recon missions. An MOS 31U communications specialist provides the expertise for transmitting the digital data to subject-matter experts and higher staffs. The FEM is expandable to eight soldiers if an MOS 62N30 horizontal-construction supervisor and U.S. Air Force Combat Control Team member are needed for a more detailed assessment of roads and airfields respectively.

The configuration and capabilities of the Engineer Reconnaissance FEM provide a superior intelligence capability for the follow-on-force commander and planners. The Reconnaissance System Suite of electronic tools can be easily adapted to vehicle or man-packed operational recon, if required by the force, in addition to the standard engineer recon of transportation infrastructure and terrain. The compact size of the FEM is also its primary shortfall. It lacks heavy weapons and armor for self-protection and has only minimal sustainment capabilities. However, as part of a larger IRF insertion, this FEM provides the tools necessary for planners to bring in a more robust ground presence.

Follow-On-Force Entry: As the Army transforms to be more deployable and immediately salient to the CINCs, rapid assessment of the existing road, bridge, and airfield infrastructure in places like Albania or the flood-ravaged countryside of Mozambique will be the linchpin to successful heavy-force entry in coming years.