US IBCT/SBCT ToE question

[ChrisWerb]

I just read an article in popular mechanics to the effect that a US Stryker Brigade Combat Team has one Javelin CLU per squad for a total of 81 per brigade. That seems pretty lavish and a bit encumbering for the individual squads, assuming they don't leave the CLU and missiles in the vehicle most of the time. Is this correct?

[Mirzayev]

I can't speak specific numbers for the MToE, but yes, the SBCT has the largest number of Javelins out of any BCT. It actually isn't as big of an encumbrance as you might think, since they can be left in the vehicle if there is not an anticipated armor/vehicle threat. 

 

It also isn't that lavish, since except for the MGS and ATGM variants of the Stryker, you have either a M2 .50 CAL or a MK19 40mm Grenade Launcher mounted on your vehicles (or a M240 for the MCVs), neither of which is effective at killing any sort of armored vehicle. For the most part, the Javelin is the only reliable method that an individual Squad has for destroying enemy armored vehicles. The ATGMs are a Brigade-level asset, and the MGS, while it can be used to defeat enemy armored vehicles, is best employed as infantry support. 

 

Edit: An article about the use of Javelins at the National Training Center: http://www.benning.army.mil/infantry/magazine/issues/2014/Jul-Sep/Scott.html

Edited October 22, 2016 by Mirzayev

[ChrisWerb]

Thank you Mirzayev. I suspect that link may be mil access only as it doesn't work for me.

 

The entire Belgian Land Component apparently only has 66 Spike MR's, or significantly less than one US SBCT.

Edited October 22, 2016 by ChrisWerb

[Ssnake]

I thinik the US military uses simple IP filtering against foreign access. Nothing that a simple proxy can't solve. There are some to circumvent YouTube's region filtering as well. Of course the question is, how much do you trust some more or less obscure, free proxy server through which, by necessity, all your internet traffic must go.

[Gibsonm]

On 10/22/2016 at 1:08 PM, ChrisWerb said:

The entire Belgian Land Component apparently only has 66 Spike MR's, or significantly less than one US SBCT.

 

That maybe more a question of budgeting / perceived threat / perceived capability requirement than lavish allocation.

 

Edited October 23, 2016 by Gibsonm
typo

[Lt DeFault]

Link works for me, and I'm not military.

[ChrisWerb]

4 hours ago, Lt DeFault said:

Link works for me, and I'm not military.

 

I get this a lot with US .mil addresses.

[ChrisWerb]

13 hours ago, Gibsonm said:

 

That maybe more a question of budgeting / perceived threat / perceived capability requirement than lavish allocation.

 

 

I'm not saying the US ToE isn't justified - it obviously is - just that it seems a lot of launchers/CLU's. I guess that's national subjectivity on my part. If I remember correctly, back in the day a British armoured infantry battalion had 16 MILAN firing posts and a section of 4 Spartans equipped with a "MILAN Compact Turret" twin launcher, for a total of 20, so, at 60 per brigade, not so far below the US allocation. In the TA, those battalions that had fire support companies (many did not) had 6 MILAN per battalion. From 1988 to 99 we had the 24th Airmobile Brigade in my home town of Colchester which was allocated the "MILAN suicide" role as an airmobile blocking force. IIRC it had one protected mobility battalion on Saxon APCs with a normal MILAN allocation and two air mobile battalions that were essentially exclusively MILAN - no rifle companies as such. I don't have a ToE to hand, but I think it may have been 48 MILAN per battalion - if so the brigade exceeded US IBCT ATGW levels with a slightly less portable system, but in a much less tactically flexible formation.

 

Way off topic, but here's a thread about the "new" ADF rifle. Very nice! (ignore the warnings - we've been trying to get off Google's shit list for months - a fact which Ssnake will verify)

 

Edited October 24, 2016 by ChrisWerb