Advisor Brigades

[ODB]

The company formerly known as Blackwater....

Overseas Contingency Operations formerly known as the GWOT....

Advisor Brigades formerly known as Brigade Combat Teams....

Man made disasters formerly known as acts of terrorism....

Anyone else see the pattern?

LINK

A spokesman for Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates, Lt. Col. Patrick S. Ryder, told IPS Tuesday that "several advisory and assistance brigades" would be part of a U.S. command in Iraq that will be "re-designated" as a "transition force headquarters" after August 2010.

But the "advisory and assistance brigades" to remain in Iraq after that date will in fact be the same as BCTs, except for the addition of a few dozen officers who would carry out the advice and assistance missions, according to military officials involved in the planning process.

Gates has hinted that the withdrawal of combat brigades will be accomplished through an administrative sleight of hand rather than by actually withdrawing all the combat brigade teams. Appearing on Meet the Press Mar. 1, Gates said the "transition force" would have "a very different kind of mission", and that the units remaining in Iraq "will be characterised differently".

"They will be called advisory and assistance brigades," said Gates. "They won't be called combat brigades."

[Ken White]

I've heard that the Army's preference for the Advisory mission is to take a Bn or BCT, give it some added Specialists and a mission specific trainup and send it forth for a year to do great things. That, IMO, is a very good fix with both training (for the Bn/BCT and the assisted nation or force) and minimal disruption of the total force values. A key factor will be the quality of the trainup (and the first one is bound to be poor in comparison to later editions),

However, I've also heard the new crowd at DoD doesn't like that idea and is inclined to opt for dedicated Advisors. That's really dumb IMO. It will not be popular (which is machts nichts) and it will be disruptive and will result in persons not current going to train others -- so we'll probably do that...

So maybe this thread reports an effort to give it a try and see how well it works. On that basis, picking the 82d makes sense. ??? We'll see, I guess...

[Uboat509]

I was driving back to Carson from Bragg this morning and Gareth Porter was on the radio discussing this issue. The man is a hack who gives other hacks a bad name. He was on some "peace" show. I initially thought that I was listening to NPR but apparently it was a far left leaning station. He talked about how the the military was going rename some of the BCTs to Advisor BDEs and add a few dedicated advisers and then leave them in Iraq. He framed it conspiratorily as if the Obama administration was breaking it's pledge to have all combat troops out of Iraq in 18 months (the exact phrase he used was "political sleight of hand"). He then bemoaned the fact that no one else in the MSM had picked up on this. The host of the show then played a quote from the SECDEF where he announces this exact thing at a press conference. The SECDEF, of course, makes the point that the BDE will have a completely different mission, a fact lost on Porter. Porter tried cover by mumbling some nonsense about how the SECDEF was "giving a hint" to what was going to happen. I would have called it an explicit statement but Porter prefers hint, Tomato Tomahto I guess.

How does this guy have a press pass? As far as I can tell he is a tin foil hat and a copy of A Catcher in the Rye away from his own blog on the Daily Kos.

SFC W

[jkm_101_fso]

Just got orders to 1/1 ID at Riley; report in the fall. 1/1 apparently has been identified as an Advise and Assist Brigade after they hand off the TT mission to Polk on 1 SEP. A few questions for anyone that may know:

Is the MTOE different for an AAB? If so, how?

Will AABs be "dual mission", with the AAB portion as an "additional mission" or will the AAB mission be the primary (only) effort of the unit?

When an AAB deploys, would they take their equipment (Tanks, Brads, Paladins, etc)?

Not sure if anyone has heard, but any information would be appreciated.

-Jake

[Rob Thornton]

Jake, while they are being called AABs in Iraq, on this end (and this week)they are the "modular brigades augmented for SFA". There is an augmentation package associated with it (ping me on AKO and I'll send you latest we have). Keep in mind that conditions will drive a lot of the other decisions you inquired about, and that like anything else on paper wire diagrams only tell part of the story.

Best, Rob

[jkm_101_fso]

Jake, while they are being called AABs in Iraq, on this end (and this week)they are the "modular brigades augmented for SFA". There is an augmentation package associated with it (ping me on AKO and I'll send you latest we have). Keep in mind that conditions will drive a lot of the other decisions you inquired about, and that like anything else on paper wire diagrams only tell part of the story.

Best, Rob

Rob,
WILCO, appreciate it.