Re-structuring the BCT

[Tukhachevskii]

General Purpose (GP -- precursor for the once ubiquitous 'Jeep') equipment rather than sensibly buying designed for purpose items.

The M3 Bradley was a political compromise purchased by the Armor and Cavalry folks to assure that the Infantry folks (who were buying the M2 Bradley) supported their buy of the M1 Tank. A part of the cost was cancellation of the XM8 Armored Gun system and of a dedicated Scout vehicle. The HMMWV is a lousy scout vehicle but is the standard, GP 'light' (???) wheeled vehicle.

IOW, there is no rationale. Both items were and are simply available and the best of many poor solutions given a refusal to buy dedicated equipment...

We do a lot of really dumb stuff.

We over-Armor our Recon elements because we do not have the patience to wait for effective, time consuming reconnaissance to be completed, we just load up on Armor and go out looking for trouble. Dumb...

We've identified a lack of effective Reconnaissance capability as a tactical and operational shortfall again and again -- we still haven't really fixed it, mostly because we're unwilling to buy dedicated equipment (or adequately train our people) and have impatient Staff Officers who are unwilling to wait for information...

Now you mention it I remember that the scout and MICV were melded for cost savings; I always had a soft spot for the XM-808 "Twister" (doable, IMO, with todays composite, hybrid drive, digital technology), although the XM-800T was probably more suitable. I only asked because I know the Danish army scout platoon had two tanks (tank section) and a light vehicle section (2 VW I think) and a single mortar vehicle. Apparently, they did very well at NATO training meets combining stealth with survivability (based on the firepower and protection of the tanks). Anyone who knows about the travils of Britain's FRES programme (essentially jumping on the US "medium weight" Stryker bandwagon) knows that the British Gov have just chosen a 30tonne MICV (that's pushing the "medium wieght" bit, IMO); personally I would have liked to have seen the UK go with the TRACER programme (which see half way down the article). I think the German/Dutch Fennek is probably one of the better light recon platforms.