Page:John Banks Wilson - Maneuver and Firepower (1998).djvu/408

386 logistical requirements, the study called for a radical reorganization of the division support command, primarily to address the forward area of the battlefield. The command included a materiel management center, adjutant general and finance companies, a supply and transport battalion, a maintenance battalion, and three support battalions, one for each divisional brigade. Support battalions, which were to "arm, fuel, fix, and feed forward," included headquarters and headquarters, supply, maintenance, and medical companies. A small medical battalion supported the rest of the division, Planners had difficulty deciding whether to place a chemical company at corps, division, or division support command level, but gave it to the supply and transport battalion in the support command.16

Evidence of fundamental change existed within the combat arms. Each tank battalion consisted of a headquarters element and four tank companies, and each tank company fielded three platoons of four tanks each. Mechanized infantry battalions contained a headquarters element along with one TOW and four rifle companies, with the riflemen to be mounted on new Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. To counter the Soviet Union’s high density of artillery and improved weapons, the Division-86 study, like its predecessor, significantly increased the division artillery. It fielded three battalions of 155-mm. self-propelled howitzers organized into three batteries, each having eight pieces; one battalion of sixteen 8-inch howitzers and nine multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) mounted on vehicles: and a target acquisition battalion.17

The reconnaissance squadron called for three troops, each having two platoons equipped with cavalry fighting vehicle—similar to the Bradley fighting vehicle—and a platoon of motorcycles. A new organization, an air cavalry attack brigade (later designated as an aviation brigade), which resulted from the pioneer work of the 1st Cavalry Division and the 6th Cavalry Brigade at Fort Hood and others, appeared in the division to provide helicopters for an antitank role. Two attack battalions, each consisting of four companies with six helicopters each, and a combat support aviation battalion, which provided resources for command aviation, aircraft maintenance, and the military intelligence battalion, made up the brigade. The brigade fielded 134 aircraft.18