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It's more deployable and just as deadly
Developing and reorganizing an Army division into a new design is historically a difficult task. We have just completed an effort encompassing several years and involving literally hundreds of people - the redesign of the heavy division. This task was undertaken methodically and deliberately. It was supported by constructive, virtual, and live analysis, as well as the reasoned military judgment of each branch proponent in the Army. As Chief of Armor, I was personally involved throughout the process, as was my predecessor. On balance, the redesigned division is the best of the several alternatives examined. As you are no doubt aware, we have become a power projection Army with global demands and responsibilities. This redesign embodies that change and postures the Army, and the Armored Force, to move forward into the next century. We will now focus our energies on fielding, training and testing the new division. This "Commander's Hatch" will review some of the reasons for the new design and discuss several of the more significant aspects of the new Force XXI heavy division.
First, the requirement to deploy a heavy division faster was a central piece of the new design. The ability to deploy has historically competed with the tactical capability of the unit. That is, if a force is easily deployed, then it generally lacks tactical mobility, survivability, and lethality.
This has been at the heart of the enduring debate concerning the capabilities of heavy and light forces. Our task in redesigning the division was to retain as much capability as possible, but in a smaller package. The obvious comparison that tends to be drawn is in relative combat capability to the Army of Excellence division. One of the great truisms has been that "more is better." But we have reached the point in our mission set where more is not necessarily better it is just more, and strains our available resources. "Better is better," therefore the objective we pursued was to provide a more readily deployable force with the combat power needed to successfully execute the mission, while sustaining minimum losses. Our research shows we have accomplished this. The Force XXI heavy division will retain its capability and be 10% more deployable by...