jhungary
MILITARY PROFESSIONAL
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2012
- Messages
- 19,295
- Reaction score
- 387
- Country
- Location
US Army
The structure is based on the US TO&E system (Table of Organization and Equipment)
At the very top, you have the secretary of the Army oversees all Army related business (Mostly funding) and it was lead by a civilian (SecArmy) and a Military personnel (ACOS-Army Chief of staff) that is the administrative side of the structure.
US Army has 3 separated commands that control all their military activities. They are Force Command, Training and Doctrine Command and Materiel Command.
Unlike the British Commonwealth system, which using a single Command structure based at Andover (Generally referred to as General Headquarter or GHQ (A))
With the 3 commands governing the US Army, they branch out and control several assets within the US Army. US Forces Command control all field deployment and operational asset, TRADOC oversee all training and doctrine development, while Materiel command oversees all Material Acquisition, weapon and tactic research as well as maintenance of military hardware. Each of these 3 Commands are led by a 4 star general and they are all answer to both SECARMY and ACOS, at troop command level, they are the top of the food chain.
Under Force Command, the structure oversee all the US force deployment and thus is the biggest command of the 3, this single command commands all US Army Active, Reserve and National Guard soldier. And assign them into different organization and unit. Currently 7 Field Armies were organized by the Force Command via Army Active service component command. They are
Third Army – US Central Command
Fifth Army – US Northern Command
Sixth Army – US Southern Command
Seventh Army – US Army European Command
Eighth Army – US Korean Command
US Army Africa – A field Army command all asset in Africa
US Army Pacific – A Field Army command all asset in Pacific
There are also several command structure assigned by the US Force command, structure like JSOC (Joint Special Operation Command) and Logistic Command were most well known and some others I can’t remember.
While in this unit level, all sub-command (To distinguish between individual command and force command) are led by a Major General or Lieutenant General depend on the size of the Command.
Inside a Field Army, there were individual unit. Based on Corps, Corps is the biggest deployable organization to any US Army unit; Corps are usually formed with combining units between different Divisions. For example XVIII feature combine unit from 3d ID, 10th Mountain, 82D ABD and 101st ABD (Air assault)
Bear in mind, the corps US Military have is a rotation thru all the sub-ordinate unit, so not all component say for example, 10th Mountain serve in the XVIII Corp at the same time as everybody, while division supply the strength to the Corps, they retained their own command structure., currently there are 4 field Corps serving the US Army, and they are the largest Mobilizable unit the US Army can muster. Technically, you can mobilize the whole Field Army, but it can only do so by General Mobilization in National Emergency.
Most corps was commanded by a Lt General, however, although Lt General outranked Major General, if a Corps commander is a LTG while the Field Army commander is commanded by a MG, the MG will outranked the LTG even thou LTG is 1 ranker higher than MG.
As I said before, Corps made out of Divisions, each division comprise of 3 to 4 BCT + Supporting element (Aviation, logistic, recon and special troop) Each Division in US Army sized at between 10,000 (Light Infantry division) to 14,000 (Full division with 4 BCT) usually commanded by a Brigadier General or Major General, depending again on size. US currently have 10 active divisions (1st Armored, 1st Cavalry, 1st Infantry, 2nd Infantry, 3rd Infantry, 4th Infantry, 10th Mountain, 25th Light Infantry, 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne Division)
BCT (Brigade Combat Team) filled the rank of a Division, while US Army no longer uses Regiment as a organization component after 1992 structure reform (Beside Armored and Cavalry unit), though still related to Family lineage of any battalions that make up the BCT. BCT is the organic component within a Division and is actually the most common deployable forces within the US military. BCT is a combine arms service, which included infantry element, armored element, aviation element and artillery element. The fact that they are of CAB mean they are forward deployable, meaning you can plug any BCT from any Division and you can put them everywhere, thus making the deployment strategy “Modular” within the US Army. BCT usually made up by 4 battalions from each of the element (Infantry, Artillery, cavalry and Armored. BCT have strength between 2500-4000 personnel. Usually commanded by a colonel or BG in some case
Each BCT were formed by individual battalion pull from different infantry, artillery, cavalry, aviation and armored element. Battalion is formed by 3 companies + HQ command. Usually commanded by a Lt Colonel
Company is on the other hand the basic unit of any deployable force out there in the field, they are the basic maneuver unit around, and it is the smallest independent unit (Not counting Special Force) you get on field level. Commanded by a Captain usually (Sometime a Major or even 1LT) A Company usually consist of 3 rifle platoon and 1 heavy weapon platoon + Company HQ, which generally reach 150-180 men per company.
Platoon is the organic complement of any deploying company. A standard Infantry Platoon have 42 men (39 men in 3 squad) + Platoon Leader (2LT), Platoon Sergeant and Platoon Medic/RTO) Could be more than that number if a FO or AFO were added in the rank. Command by a 2LT.
Squad is made out of 2 Fire Teams, 5 men each, with squad Sergeant (Staff Sergeant) leading a squad, with 1 Radio Operator and Medic per squad made up the 13 men team.
Fire team is the basic element of any troop tactics (Beside individual soldier), Fire team lead by a Sergeant or Corporal with a 4 men team.
British and Commonwealth System
British have a single uniformed command structure situated in the Army GHQ (General Headquarter) in Andover (Much like the Whitehall in MOD HQ) Where Andover HQ oversee all budget and operational deployment of all British Army Unit in UK or in the field.
The largest organization within the British Army is the Division. Several components from different regiment in the same area formed into division. Most division are location orientated, that means British Division have their own Area of Operation when they are deployed within the UK (Except the Armored Division).
Each UK division were commanded by a Major General, commanded about 6 to 7 Battalions from 2 to 3 Regiment and supporting unit in total about 20,000 men each.
All battalions were drawn from the same geological feature, hence you have a division raise in the same area that they are defending. This is the lineage of British Army unit, going back to medieval time when Military unit was raised in each area within the Kingdom.
Brigade or Individual Brigade is a specialized unit that were formed by 3 or more battalions, the different between Brigade and Regiment is that is the British term of Combine Armed Service (CAS) where it essentially like the BCT formation in the US Counter part. However, BCT is the basic structure of any given division. While Brigade in British Army as sort of Battle Ready Battle group, which were deployed across the British Isle for Quick Response.
Each Regiment was raised within their local recruiting area where they form together and organized into Regiment of British Army. Each Regiment has 3 Battalions or more and support element. The different between Brigade and Regiment is that Regiment is not an organic element and they are uniform element (An infantry Regiment, such as Royal Anglian Regiment will only comprise with Infantry battalions.)
Both Brigade and Regiment (As well as Division) were not standard organization, a division can have (The Guard Division) 5 battalions, or another Divisions can have 7 battalions (Scottish Division) or Queens Division have 9 battalions And so does a Brigade and Regiments. Some have more battalions than the others.
A Brigadier commands a Brigade while a Major General command a regiment. A regiment normally massed over 5000 men while Brigade massed somewhere between 3200-5000 men.
Battalions normally consist of 3 Rifle Company, followed by a Battalion HQ, Supporting Company, in all, 650 to 800 men. Battalion is an organic formation for any regiment or brigade where they were independently operated and functioning as a fighting unit.
Company is traditionally led by a Major with 3 platoon and a Company HQ section usually complemented by a heavy weapon platoon, each platoon were commanded by a Lieutenant or Second Lieutenant, generally a platoon would have 27 men in service (1 Platoon Leader, 1 Platoon Sergeant, 1 Radio Operator and 3, 8 men section led by a Corporal.
The difference between US and Commonwealth Structure
There are several differences between US and Commonwealth Structure. I will use point form to better illustrated them
1.) US Army separate the Active and Reserve Service (Both Reserve and National Guard) no active service division would have Reserve member In it (Aside from Special Force) and Active member have their own Organization (Division, Brigade Combat Team and Battalions) and Reserve member have their own. While the British organize them into the same Regiment, uses R Anglian as an example. 1 R ANGLIAN and 2 R ANGLIAN is active battalions, while 3 R ANGLIAN is of reserve component.
2.) US Military have a modular organization, each organization can be pull out and put into another Unit either different BCT or Different Division. While UK System uses geographical location to limited their deployment (Except oversea service)
3.) Although both US Military and British Army have Corps, But the former is deployable and the latter is only as an administrative (Name only)
4.) US Military does not operate Regiment, as they evolved into all BCT Division, intended to Operate separately with still intra-service support. British Army have Regiment as basic Deployment unit. Although still they usually breakaway according to different battalion, the Regimental action does still exist within British Army.
5.) US does not have Battle group concept, they favor a smaller Brigade Combat Team Concept.
6.) Rather of an unified Command, US Army operates on 3 separate and different commands.
Come back tomorrow for more comparison between US, Commonwealth and Swedish Structure
The structure is based on the US TO&E system (Table of Organization and Equipment)
At the very top, you have the secretary of the Army oversees all Army related business (Mostly funding) and it was lead by a civilian (SecArmy) and a Military personnel (ACOS-Army Chief of staff) that is the administrative side of the structure.
US Army has 3 separated commands that control all their military activities. They are Force Command, Training and Doctrine Command and Materiel Command.
Unlike the British Commonwealth system, which using a single Command structure based at Andover (Generally referred to as General Headquarter or GHQ (A))
With the 3 commands governing the US Army, they branch out and control several assets within the US Army. US Forces Command control all field deployment and operational asset, TRADOC oversee all training and doctrine development, while Materiel command oversees all Material Acquisition, weapon and tactic research as well as maintenance of military hardware. Each of these 3 Commands are led by a 4 star general and they are all answer to both SECARMY and ACOS, at troop command level, they are the top of the food chain.
Under Force Command, the structure oversee all the US force deployment and thus is the biggest command of the 3, this single command commands all US Army Active, Reserve and National Guard soldier. And assign them into different organization and unit. Currently 7 Field Armies were organized by the Force Command via Army Active service component command. They are
Third Army – US Central Command
Fifth Army – US Northern Command
Sixth Army – US Southern Command
Seventh Army – US Army European Command
Eighth Army – US Korean Command
US Army Africa – A field Army command all asset in Africa
US Army Pacific – A Field Army command all asset in Pacific
There are also several command structure assigned by the US Force command, structure like JSOC (Joint Special Operation Command) and Logistic Command were most well known and some others I can’t remember.
While in this unit level, all sub-command (To distinguish between individual command and force command) are led by a Major General or Lieutenant General depend on the size of the Command.
Inside a Field Army, there were individual unit. Based on Corps, Corps is the biggest deployable organization to any US Army unit; Corps are usually formed with combining units between different Divisions. For example XVIII feature combine unit from 3d ID, 10th Mountain, 82D ABD and 101st ABD (Air assault)
Bear in mind, the corps US Military have is a rotation thru all the sub-ordinate unit, so not all component say for example, 10th Mountain serve in the XVIII Corp at the same time as everybody, while division supply the strength to the Corps, they retained their own command structure., currently there are 4 field Corps serving the US Army, and they are the largest Mobilizable unit the US Army can muster. Technically, you can mobilize the whole Field Army, but it can only do so by General Mobilization in National Emergency.
Most corps was commanded by a Lt General, however, although Lt General outranked Major General, if a Corps commander is a LTG while the Field Army commander is commanded by a MG, the MG will outranked the LTG even thou LTG is 1 ranker higher than MG.
As I said before, Corps made out of Divisions, each division comprise of 3 to 4 BCT + Supporting element (Aviation, logistic, recon and special troop) Each Division in US Army sized at between 10,000 (Light Infantry division) to 14,000 (Full division with 4 BCT) usually commanded by a Brigadier General or Major General, depending again on size. US currently have 10 active divisions (1st Armored, 1st Cavalry, 1st Infantry, 2nd Infantry, 3rd Infantry, 4th Infantry, 10th Mountain, 25th Light Infantry, 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne Division)
BCT (Brigade Combat Team) filled the rank of a Division, while US Army no longer uses Regiment as a organization component after 1992 structure reform (Beside Armored and Cavalry unit), though still related to Family lineage of any battalions that make up the BCT. BCT is the organic component within a Division and is actually the most common deployable forces within the US military. BCT is a combine arms service, which included infantry element, armored element, aviation element and artillery element. The fact that they are of CAB mean they are forward deployable, meaning you can plug any BCT from any Division and you can put them everywhere, thus making the deployment strategy “Modular” within the US Army. BCT usually made up by 4 battalions from each of the element (Infantry, Artillery, cavalry and Armored. BCT have strength between 2500-4000 personnel. Usually commanded by a colonel or BG in some case
Each BCT were formed by individual battalion pull from different infantry, artillery, cavalry, aviation and armored element. Battalion is formed by 3 companies + HQ command. Usually commanded by a Lt Colonel
Company is on the other hand the basic unit of any deployable force out there in the field, they are the basic maneuver unit around, and it is the smallest independent unit (Not counting Special Force) you get on field level. Commanded by a Captain usually (Sometime a Major or even 1LT) A Company usually consist of 3 rifle platoon and 1 heavy weapon platoon + Company HQ, which generally reach 150-180 men per company.
Platoon is the organic complement of any deploying company. A standard Infantry Platoon have 42 men (39 men in 3 squad) + Platoon Leader (2LT), Platoon Sergeant and Platoon Medic/RTO) Could be more than that number if a FO or AFO were added in the rank. Command by a 2LT.
Squad is made out of 2 Fire Teams, 5 men each, with squad Sergeant (Staff Sergeant) leading a squad, with 1 Radio Operator and Medic per squad made up the 13 men team.
Fire team is the basic element of any troop tactics (Beside individual soldier), Fire team lead by a Sergeant or Corporal with a 4 men team.
British and Commonwealth System
British have a single uniformed command structure situated in the Army GHQ (General Headquarter) in Andover (Much like the Whitehall in MOD HQ) Where Andover HQ oversee all budget and operational deployment of all British Army Unit in UK or in the field.
The largest organization within the British Army is the Division. Several components from different regiment in the same area formed into division. Most division are location orientated, that means British Division have their own Area of Operation when they are deployed within the UK (Except the Armored Division).
Each UK division were commanded by a Major General, commanded about 6 to 7 Battalions from 2 to 3 Regiment and supporting unit in total about 20,000 men each.
All battalions were drawn from the same geological feature, hence you have a division raise in the same area that they are defending. This is the lineage of British Army unit, going back to medieval time when Military unit was raised in each area within the Kingdom.
Brigade or Individual Brigade is a specialized unit that were formed by 3 or more battalions, the different between Brigade and Regiment is that is the British term of Combine Armed Service (CAS) where it essentially like the BCT formation in the US Counter part. However, BCT is the basic structure of any given division. While Brigade in British Army as sort of Battle Ready Battle group, which were deployed across the British Isle for Quick Response.
Each Regiment was raised within their local recruiting area where they form together and organized into Regiment of British Army. Each Regiment has 3 Battalions or more and support element. The different between Brigade and Regiment is that Regiment is not an organic element and they are uniform element (An infantry Regiment, such as Royal Anglian Regiment will only comprise with Infantry battalions.)
Both Brigade and Regiment (As well as Division) were not standard organization, a division can have (The Guard Division) 5 battalions, or another Divisions can have 7 battalions (Scottish Division) or Queens Division have 9 battalions And so does a Brigade and Regiments. Some have more battalions than the others.
A Brigadier commands a Brigade while a Major General command a regiment. A regiment normally massed over 5000 men while Brigade massed somewhere between 3200-5000 men.
Battalions normally consist of 3 Rifle Company, followed by a Battalion HQ, Supporting Company, in all, 650 to 800 men. Battalion is an organic formation for any regiment or brigade where they were independently operated and functioning as a fighting unit.
Company is traditionally led by a Major with 3 platoon and a Company HQ section usually complemented by a heavy weapon platoon, each platoon were commanded by a Lieutenant or Second Lieutenant, generally a platoon would have 27 men in service (1 Platoon Leader, 1 Platoon Sergeant, 1 Radio Operator and 3, 8 men section led by a Corporal.
The difference between US and Commonwealth Structure
There are several differences between US and Commonwealth Structure. I will use point form to better illustrated them
1.) US Army separate the Active and Reserve Service (Both Reserve and National Guard) no active service division would have Reserve member In it (Aside from Special Force) and Active member have their own Organization (Division, Brigade Combat Team and Battalions) and Reserve member have their own. While the British organize them into the same Regiment, uses R Anglian as an example. 1 R ANGLIAN and 2 R ANGLIAN is active battalions, while 3 R ANGLIAN is of reserve component.
2.) US Military have a modular organization, each organization can be pull out and put into another Unit either different BCT or Different Division. While UK System uses geographical location to limited their deployment (Except oversea service)
3.) Although both US Military and British Army have Corps, But the former is deployable and the latter is only as an administrative (Name only)
4.) US Military does not operate Regiment, as they evolved into all BCT Division, intended to Operate separately with still intra-service support. British Army have Regiment as basic Deployment unit. Although still they usually breakaway according to different battalion, the Regimental action does still exist within British Army.
5.) US does not have Battle group concept, they favor a smaller Brigade Combat Team Concept.
6.) Rather of an unified Command, US Army operates on 3 separate and different commands.
Come back tomorrow for more comparison between US, Commonwealth and Swedish Structure
