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Tank Unit Organization

Infanteer

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Israel always has a unique take on organization. BattleOrder did a nice job in explaining their unit structures.

Of note, smaller companies generally preferred due to more C2 nodes.

 
A good find. My view of the Merkava was usually from the other side of the Technical Fence - rather intimidating.

Their tank organization seems driven by their officer/NCO structure, numbers of Merkava 4s and their assessment of the types of tasks they will face. All very reasonable, but two of those reasons might not translate very well to us. The Israeli Army lacks a professional NCO corps in the sense that we do, so officers do a lot of tactical tasks that NCOs would do here. They have also switched from worrying about massed armour battles in the Sinai to engagements in complex terrain. I think we are facing a different threat situation?

So they basically have a half-squadron with Lts instead of WOs commanding two of the Fire Teams and a very lean echelon.

If tank shortages forced our hand I would stick with two Troops of four for our situation.
 
Depends how many Brigades you are putting into an operational theatre at one time.
I don't think we'll ever be looking at a tank heavy brigade. The best that I can see is a two mech infantry / one armoured regiment brigade.

Notwithstanding my Cold War mentality I've always had a fondness for the economy of a 44-tank battalion/regiment. There's not a lot of difference between a 14-tank company and a 10-tank company (well there is but I see it as the tactical equivalent of our half squadron). If Afghanistan was any gauge the 10-tank company takes the place of a half squadron in an infantry heavy combat team. If a tank heavy force is needed then you go with the whole 32-tank battalion supported by a mech company.

That probably works in our current battle group centric model of deployments but the question is would a 32-tank battalion scale up in a mech brigade model in a peer conflict? Should one add a 4th company for a 42-tank battalion/regiment? Essentially the choice for a 100-tank force is: do we create 2 X 42-tank regiments or 3 X 32-tank regiments?

I'm not concerned about the Israeli's rank structure. We can easily go our own way. Quare. Does a 10-tank squadron still need a major?

🍻
 
Does a 10-tank squadron still need a major?
I wouldn't thinks so. The BC could do it. It'd kind of be like splitting the echelon where the ET takes command of one half. We are supposed to be trained one up anyway.
 
Depends how many Brigades you are putting into an operational theatre at one time.
Honestly I’d argue it doesn’t.
It’s still a shortage because you don’t have enough tanks to make the formations the CA claims to have.
 
I'm not concerned about the Israeli's rank structure. We can easily go our own way. Quare. Does a 10-tank squadron still need a major?

🍻

Based on what we're seeing in recent conflicts, after the first 30 minutes in battle, you probably won't have one left anyways ;)
 
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