Americas Defense Meltdown - IT Acquisition Advisory Council

William S. Lind • 99to what would appear to be overly large divisions. But mobilization also includesthe activation of brigade headquarters, manned by reservists and retired Marinesrecalled to active duty. With four brigade headquarters per division, units are againof manageable size. The Islandians avoid permanent, active-duty brigades because oftheir strong aversion to the growth of staffs.The active-duty Islandian officer corps above the rank of lieutenant colonel (battalioncommander; the Islandians have no rank of major) is extremely small; theirofficer corps is shaped not like a pyramid but like a mesa with a small spike in thecenter. There are only six active generals: A commandant, assistant commandant,commandant of the War College and three division commanders. The air wings’commanders are colonels. They also serve simultaneously as assistant division commanders(colonel is the highest aviation rank). Active-duty colonels, who serve ondivision staffs and on the Marine Corps General Staff, number about 30. In contrast,the U.S. Marine Corps has 818 active- duty colonels and 80 generals.All other colonel and general officer billets, such as those on joint staffs and in areassuch as procurement and R&D, are filled with reserve or retired officers recalled toactive duty on contract. The objective is to keep the active-duty officer corps focusedexclusively on warfighting. Retired general officers are also recalled to active duty asbrigade commanders on mobilization.The Islandian Marine Corps Infantry BattalionThe basic unit of the Islandian Marine Corps is the infantry battalion. 2 All infantrybattalions are light infantry, designed to be foot or bicycle mobile; they have no organicmotor vehicles. Careful attention to the soldier’s load means no man carries more than50 pounds. As a result, sustained daily march rates of 40 kilometers are routinelyattained. Where the terrain permits use of bicycles or mountain bikes, that rate canbe tripled. Each bicycle has a trailer capable of holding 50 pounds.Oddly, Islandian infantry tactics are built neither on the infantry platoon northe squad but on the four-man fire team. The fire team is an independent unit, andfire teams are routinely employed separately. This reflects not only Islandian combatexperience, which has demonstrated that no more than four men can act as a singleunit on the modern battlefield, but also their belief that unit cohesion is strongest inthe smallest possible unit. Corporals normally commands fire teams.Three fire teams make up a squad, commanded by a sergeant, and three squadsmake up a platoon, which has the strength of one officer (lieutenant), four sergeants and39 men (the fourth sergeant and three men, who serve as messengers, make up a smallcommand team with the sergeant serving as second-in-command of the platoon).Also unusually, none of these units have any standard weaponry. They are equippedon a case-by-case basis, depending on the environment in which they expect to fight.The company commander makes that decision. For example, when equipped for urban