Military Transformation: Army Actions Needed to Enhance Formation of Future Interim Brigade Combat Teams.

摘要

In October 1999, the U.S. Army announced its intentions to transform its forces into a more strategically responsive force that could more rapidly deploy and effectively operate in all types of military operations, whether small-scale contingencies or major theater wars. Army plans call for an over 30-year transformation that will lead to the ability to deploy a brigade anywhere in the world within 96 hours, a division in 120 hours, and five divisions within 30 days. The first step in this process is to form and equip six Interim Brigade Combat Teams (IBCT) by 2008. The first two brigades are being formed at Fort Lewis, Washington, with the goal of organizing, equipping, training, and certifying the first such brigade to deploy by May 2003. The Army Chief of Staff stated that it would cost approximately $1 billion to form each brigade. Because these brigades are entirely new, many questions have arisen as to how their capabilities differ from those of more traditional brigades, how the Army plans to use them, and whether they will possess capabilities that the war-fighting Commanders in Chief (CINC) need. Thus, we monitored IBCT formation at Fort Lewis during 2001 to gain a better understanding of the challenges that have arisen that might apply to subsequent brigades scheduled to be formed in other locations. We also visited the war-fighting CINCs responsible for Europe, Southwest Asia, Korea, and the Pacific to gain their perspectives on how they might use these brigades. Our objectives were to (1) identify the expected capabilities of the IBCT, (2) determine the CINCs views on the utility of the IBCTs and how the CINCs might use them, (3) identify the challenges that have arisen in forming the brigades, and (4) determine if the Army has an effective means of capturing lessons learned. This is the third in a planned series of reports related to Army Transformation and is being provided to you because of your oversight responsibilities for these issues.