Armor Battalion Force Structure in Force XXI.

Abstract

A three cadet design team from the Department of Systems Engineering at USMA investigated changes to the current Armor Battalion force structure as part of a combined effort to preserve to overall effectiveness of the armor unit in a cost effective manner. The initial stages of problem definition led to the identification of an initial effective need of developing a rapidly deployable system capable of effective armored combat. Further refinement of this effective need statement, prior to entering the systems modeling and analysis phase of the systems engineering design process, led to the following specific effective need statement: To evaluate the overall effectiveness of the armor battalion organizations minimizing decreased effectiveness caused by down-sizing the force. Smaller organizations would have the added benefit of increased strategic deployability. The decision to do analysis of the force structure stemmed from the fact that the current main battle tank is proven combat effective. The current main battle tank is proven combat effective. The current armor battalion consists of 58 M1A1/2 Abrams tanks. By taking any number of vehicles out the armor battalion, some loss in combat effectiveness is to be expected. However, if the need to reduce cost still remains, it is apparent that minimizing the decrease in combat effectiveness is very important. Strategic mobility plays a major role in the need to reduce the number of vehicles in the armor battalion. By reducing the number of tanks in an armor battalion, the cost to deploy, the time to deploy and the assets needed to deploy are all decreased. Altering the configuration of the armor battalion directly effects three objective areas: (1) Cost Savings; (2) Combat Effectiveness and (3) Strategic Deployability. Our goal is to target the fine line that separates cost savings from decreased combat effectiveness.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1998
Accession Number
ADA361134

Entities

People

  • David Briggs
  • Hoby Cupp
  • Jason Oates
  • Terry Kelly

Organizations

  • United States Military Academy

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Analysis Of Variance
  • Artillery
  • Battles
  • Combat Effectiveness
  • Cost Effectiveness
  • Engineering
  • Force Structure
  • High Resolution
  • Infantry Fighting Vehicles
  • Measures Of Effectiveness
  • Northeast Asia
  • Operations Research
  • Peptide Growth Factors
  • Systems Engineering
  • Task Forces
  • United States Military Academy
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Military Science