Can someone give a quick explanation of the "groupings" of the military, from largest to smallest, and what they are armed with.  Platoons, Brigades, Battalions, etc.  Just wondering so I can understand some of these news articles better.

Thanks!

above division you have a corps (like I Corps), and above a corps you have an Army (like the 8th Army), and above that you have the Dept of the Army.  sometimes, you have regiments places between brigades and battalions.  (such as the 502nd IN RGT of 2nd BDE, 101st ABN)

other than that, this seems current for today's infantry.  tankers and artillery have different words for the same thing (battery, squadron, etc) and I'm sure the other services have their own names, too.

so basically, it looks like this (from smallest to biggest).  the figures are approximate, as they differ based on the needs on the unit, personell availability, etc.

homogeonous units (ie, only (or mostly) infantry)
Individual (1 person)
Buddy Team (2x ppl)
Fire Team (2x BT)
Squad (2x FT)
Platoon (4x SQD)
Company (4x PLT)
Battalion (5x CO)
Regiment (3x BN)

heterogenous units (mixtures of inf, cav, armor, etc)
Brigade (6 or more BNs, or 2x RGT.)
Division (5x BDE)
Corps (2 or more DIV)
Army (2 or more Corps)
Dept of Army (the whole shabang)

edited for purdiness

There is you: You have a rifle.

There is your team: You and a couple more guys with rifles, a SAW and a GL.

There is your squad: Which has two teams of the same weapons.  If you're mech, you ride in a Bradley with a 25mm chaingun and a TOW missle system.

There is your platoon: Which has two other squads like yours, and a HQ element with the M240B GPMGs, Medic, Fire support, etc.

There is your Company: Which has three platoons like your's and an AT section (TOW missles, though I don't think they use them anymore with the Brads as they have their own.  Some mortars(60mm) and another HQ element with cooks, mechanics (in the mech you'll have a bunch more mechanics)., clerks, etc.  At this level you may wind up working with other combined arms.  You may have a couple tank platoons working with your platoon, and one of your platoons working with the Tank company the armor came from.  This lets combined arms support each other at a low level.

There is your Battalion: Which has three companies like your's and a Headquarters company with all the staff, etc.  There's another mortar section with bigger mortars (81mm or 120mm). There's a scout platoon, there's an Air defense section (Stinger), and a whole slew of folks (like a Battalion aid station, NBC, etc.).  Like the Company, The battalion can trade off companies to other battalions to mix-and-match forces for the mission.

There is your Brigade: It is just a headquarters with several battalions assigned to it.  

There is your Division: It has three Brigades like your's and several other brigades as well.  There is a Division Support Command (DISCOM) which has a Forward support battalion (FSB) for each Brigade, and a Main Spt BN (MSB) to support everyone.  There is Divisional Artillery (DIVARTY) which will have a Bn for direct spt of each Brigade and a BN for General support.  There is an MP Brigade, a Medical hospital, a Combat Aviation Brigade(CAB) with several battalions of different aircraft depending on type of Division.  There is an Engineer Brigade with all the mobility, counter-mobility etc that you need.  There is a Divisional Cavalry Squadron (which is grouped with the CAB) and a Long Range Serv Det(LRSD).  There are a bunch of other support types.  Generally all the folks (except the CAB and LRSD) from these units operate under one of the Brigades in Combat.  

A Corps consists of two or more divisions and will have a further support command (COSCOM) with all sorts of support elements.  There will also be an additional Combat AVN Bde at the corps.

An Army (numbered army) will have one or more corps in addition to further more support folks and another CAB.


Some notes:
There are different types of divisions.  They all follow the same pattern, but will have different mixes of stuff because of their different nature.  For instance the number of tanks, brads, trucks, helicopters, etc all vary with types of divisions.

Ross

well, that's a lot better than I could do.

So any more Order of Battle info you need Saddam?  We would be more than happy to provide it.

The launch codes for the Nukes are located under the 5th rock to the right of the 4th tree in the park in Sherbrook Montana.

all that info is available in public documents.  you could probably go to the library and get all that info and much more.

just like I could post all day about infantry tactics, and nobody would care, because the pertinant FMs are approved for public circulation.  OH NO!  the US Army lays down suppressive fire and flanks to assault through!

now, posting about the MFF details is a no-go, because the information is under restricted circulation.  but none of this was restricted.  it's probably all in AR 600-20, the army command policy.

on another note, I can't believe I wasted my 223rd post on a "bravo, good info" post.  I should have used such a prestigious post number on an "IBTL" or "read the ammo faq" or "hot or not?" or something.  oh well.  good day, all!

Nuke launch codes are NOT under the fifth rock, they are located in the Rock Fall, Ill. public library under Nn.

Hope That Helps!

Im sure that the guy who started this thread is not Saddam.  Yes the info discussed is Open Source, but just because its OS, does not mean that we should all compile it and have it in a nice neat package for some enemy to come along and print it out.  There is a war going on for Gods sake.  Loose Lips Sink Ships.  We all shoot ARs here, and love to talk about the new gizmo scope or target designator that the military has adopted and rush right out to try and get one ourselves.  Even I was guilty of this.  Shady 5th Col. people inside the govt loose gear and put it up on ebay.  All of this could, and unfortunatly will lead to the death of guys still on active duty.  At the beginning of Ops in the Stan there were not enough armor plates to issue to all the troops, so everyone had to use just one plate instead of two.  But there were literaly 100s of these plates on Ebay. We all complain about how horrible it is that we cant find any LC ammo to shoot and our shot groups are crap or we will end up dead when SHTF cause all we have is Wolfe ammo.  Enjoy your tight shot groups and nevermind the body bags comming home. [soapbox]

PSYWAR1-0

I think you are taking my post just a little out of hand.  I agree very much with you that "loose lips sink ships".  But, I started this thread right after reading on MSNBC.com about the huge excercise we just had in Kuwait.  The article stated that we've always had a Brigade there, and how more troops are being sent.  

I don't see how MSNBC can state that we've got a Brigade over there, and me wanting to know what the hell a Brigade consists of, is any way having "loose lips".

AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY!!

I am sure all of you "OPSEC" guys mean well, but all of this info & more can be found in a far more centralized location on the web, namely www.dod.mil.

If the info was sensitive and not public knowledge, then the DoD would not have it up on any of the websites that they watch over.

With that said, it is important to exercise tact & discretion when it comes to talking about our military forces. When in doubt, keep your mouth shut.

On the other hand, do not go off half-cocked when you have not looked into the info yourself in the name of being superior in your self-righteousness.

Have a Merry Christmas!

I can say as a ex army intelligence anaylst that organizatinal information about military units have always been open to the public as has deployement of units. The items that remain classified are speicific dates for operations, and the unit status reports that cover the individual units combat rediness ranging from personel shortages, critical equipment shortages, maintenince, number of personnel awol, article 15s, and the unit commanders comments on his units combat readiness. If a foreign agency had access to theese reports it would be a grave danger to our troops.

Melvin

One thing leads to another, first we talk about general topics, next thing ya know we are talking about specifics.  Its the pattern of recruitment/seduction that lead people to become traitors.  Now Im not calling anyone here a traitor, just trying to get everyone to check fire for a second and think about what they are doing.  I dont know how SOF even came into this thread, other than the fact that I served in SOF for the majority of my carrer.  The example I gave of lack of equipment was not a SOF issue, but a Line doggy issue.

OPSEC my Aunt Tilly!

A rapid and visible buildup of forces in the Persian Gulf early next month involving tens of thousands of forces, aircraft, armor and tens of thousands of reserves.

Up to 100,000 American troops, along with additional naval and air forces, could begin moving immediately after the holidays and be in place by the end of January or early February.

The U.S. forces could be joined by about 20,000 British troops and forces. The Pentagon had been quietly moving heavy equipment for months as part of a buildup that was kept low-key to avoid alarming the international community and creating the impression that the Bush administration had prejudged the U.N. inspections process.

There was far more heavy equipment in the region than has been reported, even with the Pentagon acknowledging the presence of about 60,000 troops and 400 aircraft at bases in Turkey, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain. Two 62,000-ton cargo ships, the USNS Watson and the USNS Charlton, sailed into the Gulf without fanfare in the past 10 days.

Statistics supplied by the Military Sealift Command show that cargo ships have moved almost 1.6 million square feet of materiel from the United States and the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia to the Persian Gulf since Oct. 1, including 1,290 20-foot containers loaded with ammunition, 18,130 tons of ammunition not in containers, tanker tucks, helicopters, bridge sections and watercraft.

Movement from the United States of Air Force fighter wings and heavy ground divisions, and the potential redeployment of aircraft carriers from U.S. ports, will be far harder to conceal than the departures of the cargo ships, because they'll have an immediate impact on thousands of families and dozens of communities.

The prepositioning that's taken place to date, another defense official said, was designed to reduce the time necessary to assemble an invasion force from four to six months to four to six weeks, or less. The official said 200,000 to 250,000 reserves could be necessary, not only to support a military campaign, but also to fulfill security missions at military bases in the United States that didn't exist during the Gulf War 11 years ago.

A fast U.S. Navy cargo ship that can be loaded and unloaded quickly, the USS Pililaau, began loading vehicles and weapons Thursday at Beaumont, Texas, another defense official said. The Pililaau can carry the equivalent of 3,000 Ford Explorers.

The official declined to identify the units whose equipment is being loaded. However, Texas is the home of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division and the 4th Infantry Division, a mechanized unit that is noted for experimenting with high-tech weapons.

A second ship, the USS Yano, is scheduled to load equipment this weekend at Charleston, S.C., the defense official said. The equipment is believed to belong to the Georgia-based 3rd Infantry Division, one of whose three brigades is deployed in Kuwait.

The official said it would take 30 days for the ships to reach the Persian Gulf. Since Oct. 1, 23 U.S. Navy and chartered civilian cargo ships, including two Saudi-owned vessels, have moved trucks, portable bridges, helicopters, ammunition, Army landing craft and other military cargo to the region. The shipments have come from the United States and from bases in Europe and Asia.

An estimated 50,000 American personnel now in the Middle East include about 20,000 ground troops, most of them in Kuwait. They include most of the command structure for an invasion of Iraq: the headquarters staffs of the Europe-based U.S. Army 5th Corps and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force from Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Gen. Tommy Franks' 600-strong Tampa-based Central Command staff.

Military officials, one in the Pentagon and one in Florida National Guard headquarters, said late Thursday they have had no advance word of a troop buildup and have no indication of what role Florida troops might play in Iraq.

''We have not received any word that we will have any forces needed for any buildup or other contingency,'' said Lt. Col. Ron Tittle, spokesman for the 10,000-plus members of the Florida Army National Guard and more than 2,000 members of the Florida Air National Guard.

Earlier in the week, however, the Pentagon alerted about 1,000 members of two battalions of the 124th Infantry, one unit stationed in Panama City in the Panhandle and the other in Orlando, to prepare for potential activation.

Analysts inside and outside the government expect next month's buildup to use Air Force C-17 and C-5 wide-body airlifters and 41 cargo ships from the Military Sealift Command to move armored, mechanized and air-mobile Army Divisions based in the United States and Germany.

A brigade from the 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Stewart, Ga., is already in Kuwait, and the division's commander said his entire force was ready to deploy if called.

Army officials in Europe are also assuming that forces from the 1st Armored Division and the 1st Infantry Division, based in Germany, will deploy, in addition to the Southern European Task Force, an airborne brigade based in Vicenza, Italy. ''There are certainly some attractive features to the geographic location,'' one defense official said. ``You're halfway there.''

The 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., is also likely to deploy with dozens of Apache helicopter gunships and Blackhawk troop transports. ''If you're talking about war with Iraq,'' the official said, ``you're going to need a certain amount of mobility and a certain amount of firepower, like the 101st. There is no other division that has the kind of air mobility they have.''

From other sources:

Currently, there are about 62,000 American soldiers in the region; the largest contingent, 11,000, in Kuwait, next to the Iraqi border. This is also where the regional command of the US Army is situated right now. (Camp Doha, Qatar)

The remainder is mostly stationed in Afghanistan, Saudi-Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and Turkey. About 15,000 troop await further orders aboard battleships.

3,500 Air Force are stationed at El Udeid, about 35 klicks west of Camp Doha. Here there is the largest airstrip in the region, and hangars for between 40 and 80 aircraft.

Around 400 aircraft are scattered between bases in Afghanistan, Saudi-Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Incirlik AFB, Turkey.

A number of B-2 bombers has been transferred from Diego Garcia to Britain.

More aircraft will be in the area, once the carriers „USS Abraham Lincoln“, „USS George Washington“ (in December 2002) and the „USS Constellation“, „USS Nimitz“ und „USS Harry Truman“ (in January 2003) will arrive on the scene, although the Washington will be there only temporarly.

Late October, the „USS Kitty Hawk“ left Japan with unknown destination.

Furthermore, the Pentagon might call up on the merchant navy reserve to support transport of heavy equipment. Up to 50 freighters could be chartered.

Three military freighters are headed towards US ports to pick up heavy equipment.

Sapper units, assumed to be deployed into the area, have been equipped with portable bridges. This points at a land-based invasion of Iraq, very likely to involve a crossing of the Euphrat river.

etc. pp.

We had a good habit of watching CNN for our morning briefing.

Military classification translation:

Confidential- It was on CNN this morning.
Secret- It's on CNN this evening.
Top Secret- It is in the last Tom Clancy novel.

Drive by intelligence- drive by and look at the parking lot of any relevant government building.  Or through the chain link fences "hiding" the equipment to see if it is missing.  

Carry out/ Delivery intelligence- watch for deliveries of food or large carry out orders.

Being that our tables of organization are public information, I think Saddam isn't gaining much by reading this post.  He uses cab drivers (the real reason they don't take the most direct route anywhere) and CNN.

Thanks to Troy for this image:

[img]http://www.openstore.com/posters/sometalk.jpg [/img]

Once more with feeling.......


I am sure all of you "OPSEC" guys mean well, but all of this info & more can be found in a far more centralized location on the web, namely www.dod.mil.

If the info was sensitive and not public knowledge, then the DoD would not have it up on any of the websites that they watch over.

With that said, [b]it is important to exercise tact & discretion when it comes to talking about our military forces. When in doubt, keep your mouth shut.[/b]

On the other hand, do not go off half-cocked when you have not looked into the info yourself in the name of being superior in your self-righteousness.

Have a Merry Christmas!

OPSEC SHMOPSEC!

I'll give you some troop movements:

US Army
1st Armored Division
1st Cavalry Division
1st Infantry Division
3rd Armored Division
24th Infantry Division
82nd Airborne Division Band
84th Army
101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)

National Guard
129th
151st
Both activated to support Ft. Campbell while the 101st Airborne Division while stationed in the Gulf.

The following units could be sent if there is need:
76th Army
33rd Army
Of course these are Army Band Units and they were depoloyed during Desert Storm and Bosnia.
[x]

Nobody said it was. He referred to 2d Brigade OF the 101st Airborne.

Incidentally, I feel I must explain the difference between actual regiments with regimental HQ and regimental [i]affiliation[/i].

Few regiments exist as actual combat units. The 75th Ranger Regiment, 2nd, 3rd, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiments (ACRs) and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) are a few that come to mind. Other historical regiments exist by affiliation with Battalions under our current Battalion - Brigade - Division Force Structure (There is a current great thread on here about an M16A4 in Kuwait that featured a great post on the origins of our current Divisions in WWI).

The new numbered brigades took away the sense of important historical lineage from units.

The Army currently maintains regimental tradition by associating battalions within these numbered brigades with historical regiments. This allows the maximum preservation of regimental tradition even in a smaller Army (some regiments may only affiliate with one battalion). The difference was [i]supposed[/i] to be easily seen when the unit's name was written. A battalion with a regimental affiliation be written with the regimental number following it with a hyphen; as opposed to the conventional way to show units in hierarchy with backslashes. Hence the unit I deployed with last: A/3-43 ADA was Alpha [i]battery[/i], 3rd [i]Battalion[/i] of the 43rd ADA [i]Regiment[/i]. The actual HQ above our battalion was 11th ADA [i]brigde[/i]. Many people obviously never got the memo, and thus confusion still remains.

Please don't get me started about the Army's attempt to find a name for the [i]new[/i] concept of more self sustaining Brigades (like the new [i]interim brigade combat team[/i])- thus going back to a trend of more autonomous units being led by Colonels. Excuse me, Army: we have a word already - IT'S REGIMENT!!


Adam

Thanks for the info.  I knew there was something there, but didn't have the information to go into it.  Thanks agian for the info.