ARTICLES

Taken as a whole, the recommendations in this article which should be considered by the
Canadian Army as part of its Force 2016 initiative are the following, in order of priority:
1. Adopt the infantry battalion and mechanized infantry battalion as detailed at Annex A
and B into doctrine. This includes the concepts of the four-soldier fire team and divisible
rifle section as the building block of the infantry, company weapons platoons and IFV
platoons, improved combat support company organizations and realigned maintenance
platoons. B-GL-309-001, long in need of an update, should be rewritten to describe these
organizations. B-GL-309-002 needs to be written for the rifle company and its weapons
platoon, as nothing currently exists. A second manual describing the mechanized rifle
company and replacing the interim B-GL-321-007 is also required. B-GL-309-003 needs
to be rewritten to reflect the new, universal rifle platoon.
2. Transition to a new structure of six force generation infantry battalions and three force
generation mechanized infantry battalions. What battalions of each regiment are
designated to transition to IBs is up for further analysis. This frees up at least 150 LAV
hulls for other uses, through either conversion to other variants or use by other corps. As
well, this mix still allows the infantry battalions to meet their remit in the current MRP.
3. Reinvigorate Regular/Reserve relationships and unit-to-unit affiliation to improve
integration of force-generated Reserve rifle platoons to operate in rifle and mechanized
rifle companies as part of annual training. Divisions, brigades and battalions cannot
afford to continue with two separate Regular and Reserve systems of force generating
combat power.
4. Re-establish mortar platoons in all battalions as soon as possible. The 81‐mm L16
mortars are transferred from the artillery to the infantry, and the Infantry School must
work with the Artillery School to revive the mortar skill set in the infantry corps. The
two highest-priority projects for the infantry corps are a replacement for the L16
medium mortar (now long in the tooth) and a new lightweight mortar for the company
weapons platoons (the M224 A1 light mortar and M252 A1 medium mortar, with
weight-saving reductions, are examples of good candidates).
5. Use 18+ surplus LAVs for a LAV-mortar program and redesign them as mortar
carriers, similar to the divested Bison-based Wolf, to be allocated to the mortar
platoons of mechanized infantry battalions to increase their mobility and survivability
while supporting combat team operations.
6. Have the infantry corps re-establish the Basic and Advanced Pioneer courses, which
are pared-down versions of the previous incarnations aiming to provide rifle sections,
platoons and companies with integral basic demolition capability and improved
understanding of elementary mobility and counter-mobility techniques. These courses
will take pressure off the combat engineers to provide pioneering capability to the
infantry, enabling those squadrons and regiments to focus on the more demanding
and technical battlefield engineering tasks.
82 THE CANADIAN ARMY JOURNAL VOLUME 16.2 2016