Originally Posted by wm
The correct unit designations were the 2nd and 3rd ACRs and I am not sure even up to 1989 neither USAREUR/EUCOM but mainly USAREUR felt they could not win in a direct confrontation from the get go---if that were the case then a number of USA SF teams carrying ADMs destined to create choke points and to deny freedom of movement and slow resupply would not have been needed.
It was felt that the 2 ACRs would never be enough to slow, stop and or defeat the initial charges of the Soviet Army Ground Forces Germany.
USAREUR moved additional armored assets to Garlstedt Lower Saxony in 85/86 timeframes in order to give an additional slow down effect and to get them out of the so called drug infested large German cities which did not in the end work but it was a great completely new base.
That was just the Army issues---the AF side was even more complicated as the Soviet AD rings built using the SAM 6/8s would have based on loss calculations decimated USAF assets that were forward based.
Everything at that point in 1986 was designed to slow down and provide time for follow on forces out of the States to reach Europe.
Not sure where you get your information but the US needed time to get the large Reforger designated units into Europe as flow on follow on units---thus the need to create time in a holding formation. Remember the Reforger concept and you failed to mention that and the US had starting in 1968 moving a large number of it's units back to the States and kept pre-positioned equipment for the Reforger units to fall in on which they then turned back into the depots when completing the Reforger exercises---so where is this idea USAREUR felt they could win from the get go.
If you talked with those from the 2/3ACRs they never envisioned living long enough to see the 1st CAV make it into Europe from Ft.Hood which was one of the USAREUR designated heavy armored divisions. Remember in 1989 it was the Apaches that played hide and seek with opposition tanks and those Apaches came from the US.
Not sure where you were in 1986 but the Warsaw Pact conducted one of the largest exercises up to that point which had USAREUR stunned at what was pulled up to by the Soviet Ground Forces Germany within 30kms of the inner German border (and in Lower Saxony up to within 3kms) and what was then pulled into their secondary lines in Poland and Czechoslovakia.
The last Reforger exercise was in 1989 and the Soviets also pulled up an equally large number of their Soviet Ground Forces Germany units and matched unit for unit near the innerGerman border.
There was some new thinking for that exercise that the old Fulda Gap scenario might have been in fact wrong when the Soviet Ground Forces suddenly shifted their armored assets more northerly and focused on the Lower Saxony border area (UK protected zone) which reflected their interest in cutting all follow on resupply coming in via Holland and a shorter run to the Rhine River. That was also one of the major thoughts behind the repositioning of US armored assets into Lower Saxony and extremely close to the inner German border as the UK did not even in 1989 have large ground forces based in the border area.
By the last Reforger exercise in 1989 we did see indications of this new Soviet concept being played out in their exercises.
This was posted today by a previously provided Ukrainian link and one can or cannot accept it but it is probably next to the Breedlove photo release one of the best listings of Russian Army Order of Battle arrayed now on the Ukrainian/Crimea border region by named Russian units and equipment available.
Reminds one of the inner German border days in 1989 but we only had to deal with T72/80s not the newer T80/90s.
So you are assuming the 173rd is just for what justifying more money in an already defined and approved military budget with a planned sequester feature kicking in at the middle of this year---come on wm the 173rd is happy to be on the road for live fire exercises especially if you have ever spent eight hours on just getting to and from their own Italian live fire ranges besides they get bored in a hurry if you have seen their old and now new installations as they finished their last AFG rotation and they had only African training events on the horizon in the coming years and with the current Army wide limited training budget they are happy to be on the move as there was not much to keep them busy and there was a serious conversation in late 2013 on whether they would in fact remain in Italy or be moved to Grafenwoehr and or back to the States as their artillery Bn is in Grafenwoehr after the latest round of base closures in Germany.
Heck with the limited training budgets and limited AF assets in Europe they were having trouble just getting their pay jumps in for the BNs.
http://inforesist.org/numbers-rf-arm...iness/?lang=en
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