Combat Teams/Company Groups

[Britboy]

Alright everyone,

Anyone here know of, or has worked as part of, a Combat Team?

Combat Team being to Company as Battle Group is to Battalion? (i.e. company/sqn level combined arms grouping)

I am kind of getting how a Battlegroup may be made up - for example swapping a rifle coy of an Inf Bn for a tank sqn of a Cav Regt so that the inf BG has some armour and the cav BG has some dismounts.

However, how does this pan out at the lower levels, i.e. the companies and squadrons?
What makes up the combat teams (or company groups as they may be known as)?

Do you keep them pure (i.e. you literally just swap a coy for a sqn and thats it), or would you split up your 'swapsies' so that each coy now has a tank troop directly attached? Or similarly each tank sqn should have a rifle platoon directly attached?

I can see the worth in having cooperation down to the lowest level; but equally surely you 'water down' the effectiveness of a tank sqn if you split it up into troops that are then separated to other coys. You kind've want to keep your forces concentrated for their type of warfare.

Please nothing that refers to particular forces in specific ongoing operations - OPSEC. But I am looking for a broader foundation-type understanding of how this works.

Regards
BB

[James]

In the USMC working like this has been doctrine for quite a while. While they are infantry centric, a MEU is very much like what you describe as a battle group; infantry battalion, tank company, AAV company, artillery, aviation, logs, etc. It was also routine while training at home. A higher level commander would "chop" units to a company commander for an operation, or a certain part of a larger operation. Consequently, you might see an infantry company riding around in tracks with a platoon of tanks or LAVs attached, a dedicated artillery battery, etc.

It had little impact at my level (I was a junior enlisted man back then).

[Britboy]

Cheers for that. I suppose the lesson is 'its the commander's call. and therefore it depends on the situ'.

I suppose it also depends on how your BGs and CS and CSS units are made up, and hence how the Brigade is made up. You can only work with what you've got, after all.

Guess it is all about what you are doing as well. If you've just made a breakthrough I suppose its the role of Cav to go and drive around the enemy's rear areas OMG-styley, rather than accompanying the infantry closely acting as tank destroyers/assault guns. So I imagine your combat team/battle group may go back to being a coy/bn neat, as they go off to do their particular thing.

[Winger]

The Germans really took this idea to heart in WWII with the Kampfgruppe. Place a Major in charge of a combined arms force made up of different branches. The Kampfgruppes were typically named after the commanding officer.

[Mackie]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_battlegroups

[Laconian]

As a rifle platoon leader I was OPCONed out to be part of a armor company team quite a bit. Rarely if ever can I remember my mech bn operating w/o armor cos cross-attached. All of this task organization was done within the BDE, which consisted of 2 mech bns and one armor bn. In the field you were cross attached in garrison you returned to the umbrella of the organic bn.

IIRC, the 1st Cav Div did some organic Tm/TF combos in the 90s (GW1) and stayed that way in field & garrison.

[The Dane]

Isn't a Stryker InfCoy almost a combat-team organic.
Infantry, assaultguns, heavymortars... ?

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/3-21-9/appa.htm

[Britboy]

Laconian, interesting you say they stayed that way in barracks.

I was going to say, if we fight cross-attached then surely just keep the units that way all the time?

Obviously proportions and attachments will vary from situ to situ, but the inf does need armour and the cav does need dismounts.

Aren't the Stryker regiments Combined Arms? I.e. they have Styker APCs and Stryker MGSs in the same battalion?

I believe the French also did this a little while earlier (with AMXs?). The idea was to pool similar vehicles (like with the 2 stryker variants) but it ended up being a mixed inf/cav battalion.