From TransFormaTion To CombaT The First stryker brigade at War

and the number of maintenance personnel it needed—its “footprint”
in the field—if its vehicles made maximum use of a common chassis
adaptable to multiple purposes. The test would also determine which
existing vehicle technologies best supported the medium-weight organization.
As the evaluations proceeded, several of the Army’s leading generals
met at a conference on 10 and 11 January 2000 to discuss operational
and organizational concepts for the brigade. Those officers approved an
earlier idea that every major piece of equipment belonging to the brigade
should be transportable by C–130 aircraft. They also agreed that the
Army should continue to use available vehicles for training and doctrine
experiments until new ones were on hand. These basic decisions set the
path for the new Brigade Combat Team to follow during its transformation
from an Abrams/Bradley-equipped formation into the Army’s first
medium-weight brigade.
By the end of January the evaluators had succeeded in establishing the
operational requirements for a family of Interim Armored Vehicles based
on a single chassis. In addition to serving as a basic infantry transporter,
the new platform could be adapted to perform other functions. Although
each variant shared many mechanical features, the most important common
characteristic was an ability to leverage the data collected by joint
and Army intelligence-gathering systems to maintain a high level of
battlefield awareness. This would partially offset the vehicles’ vulnerability
to enemy antiarmor weapons, compared to Bradley or M113A3
full-tracked armored personnel carriers.
By 9 March TRADOC had established a preliminary schedule for
the brigade’s training and a requirement for the delivery in April of
draft doctrinal and instructional aids. Until those materials were present,
homegrown handbooks compiled by the Brigade Coordination Cell with
input from branch schools would have to suffice.
The decision to employ draft documents was timely, for the reorganization
of the 3d Brigade, 2d Infantry Division, began in earnest
on 18 May and threatened to overtake TRADOC’s preparatory staff
work. Originally, the unit had consisted of the 1st Battalion, 23d Infantry;
the 1st Battalion, 32d Armor; the 1st Battalion, 33d Armor;
the 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery; the 168th Engineer Company;
the 296th Forward Support Battalion; and Battery C, 5th Battalion,
5th Air Defense Artillery. In the reorganization, it lost both of its tank
battalions, its air defense battery, and its engineer company. The bulk
of its combat power then rested on the 1st Battalion, 23d Infantry, and
two new battalions: the 2d Battalion, 3d Infantry, and the 5th Battalion,
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