Interesting points about Canadian Strykers/LAV III's - did not know they were having stress issues on the frames due to combat operations.

The Army Reserve was also formed as a medical reserve in WWI for docs and nurses. As the country went to a total war capability in WWII, the USAR was expanded to become a fully structured component of the Army with combat, combat support and combat service support functions. In 1993, the USAR gave up all of its combat structure in order to get more CS/CSS from the ARNG and everyone has been happy-ish since.



Quote Originally Posted by Norfolk View Post
Excellent points Ski. I would not want to send an SBCT, let alone 2-Battalion + 1-Cav Sqn IBCT into an area where it may have to fight heavy armour formations, and that's even if such "Rapid-Deployment" formations really can be moved that quickly with all the logistics they'll need plus all the airpower and logistics that they'll need. I don't remember which Army officer wrote this in his CGSC monograph a few years ago, but his own summary of the changes over recent years was that "the current empahisis on getting lighter forces to the battlefield quickly is the Transformational equivalent of getting Custer to the Little Big Horn Faster". I think that it is supremely important to formally recognize the capabilities and limitations of each type of Formation and not try to shoe-horn Formations into a Doctrine or Concept that perhaps isn't really viable.

I worked with the original LAV-1 and loathed it, and with the LAV-25 (which was a definite improvement in terms of comfort); but despite a lot of what people in the Canadian Army were saying at the time about what new capabilities the LAV-25 (our recce versions back then had a good deal of the kit now in the LAV-III Strykers, which we also have too) gave us, it was just as clear that the LAV was in no way able to keep out even an errant 3" shell from a Sherman parked at a museum, let alone from the T-55s and T-72s that folks in the Balkans liked to use to intimidate our guys. We were forced to bring back the old Leopard I tank (and subsequently cancel the LAV-MGS) after a Platoon of 1RCR was ambushed in an village in Afghanistan, with one Section being pinned down and practically wiped out because the Strykers the Platoon had couldn't get to them for all the AT stuff the Taliban were throwing at them. Also, the wheeled suspension of the Strykers couldn't take the off-road conditions there and the hulls were cracking. Not good.

Now the Strykers are being replaced in A-Stan with rebuilt M-113A3s with the full armour kit and the old Leopard 1s have been replaced by Leopard 2s. Even an Infantry Battalion now has a Tank Squadron (Company) permanently attached for COIN in Afghanistan, and all the Rifle Companies have tracks to get them to where they need to go.

Another excellent point ski about the Army Reserve. Ever since the last handful or so of AR Separate Brigades were disbanded in the 90's, the AR has little capacity to reform said without a major effort taking several years at least. And given that Reserve recruiting isn't the hottest in recent years, and the IRR has been combed out to bring AC units up to strength, the AR is probably in little condition to attempt an expansion.

Or even the Active Army, for that matter.