Military Review English Edition November-December 2014 | Page 23

Bringing Mobility to the IBCT

Paratroopers from 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, move out
on patrol into the Ghorak Valley of Helmand Province in Southern Afghanistan, 6 March 2007.
(Photo by Spc. Matthew T. Little, U.S. Army)

Bringing Mobility to
the Infantry Brigade
Combat Team
Capt. Nathan Jennings, U.S. Army

T

he U.S. Army has a critical, yet largely unaddressed, capability gap. America’s primary land
force has reduced operations in Southwest
Asia and the Middle East after more than a decade of
diverse combat operations that ranged from a massed
combined arms invasion into Mesopotamia to decentralized mountain patrols in the Hindu Kush. During
this time, the infantry brigade combat team (IBCT),
the lightest of the Amy’s maneuver brigades, has been
revealed to be an organization of severely limited
tactical and operational utility.1 This deficiency stems
MILITARY REVIEW  November-December 2014

mainly from a dearth of organic vehicular transport
within the light fighting formations. It results in rifle
battalions and companies that are ill prepared for
the diverse challenges of warfare in the twenty-first
century.
The mobility deficit limits the combat potential of
the Army’s 14 infantry brigades (approximately 62,000
soldiers) expected to remain after overall brigade combat team reorganization. The deficit will stem from an
equipment allocation that will provide a minimal quantity of unarmored high mobility multipurpose wheeled
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