Soldiers with Delta Tank Company, 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, conduct unit gunnery March 29 at Fort Stewart, Georgia. The gunnery marked the first time 2nd ABCT troopers fired their M1A1-SA Abrams tanks since the brigade converted from a light to an armored brigade combat team. The unit recently received the tanks. (Spc. Leo Jenkins/Army)
The Army wanted more armor so a former infantry unit is now training with tanks.
Soldiers with Delta Tank Company, 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division began initial training with upgraded M1A1 tanks at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
“The Abrams is the most lethal land warfare platform, battle-tested in both Desert Storm and Iraq,” Capt. Freddy Mitchell, the Delta commander, said in a Defense Department release. “This tank brings another long-range, direct-fire weapons system to our brigade.”
Army researchers are testing future scenarios in which a single tank crew would control not only its own tank but a drone and two other unmanned vehicles in a coordinated attack using robot systems.
The goal is to boost the Army’s armor for more rotational deployments to areas such as Eastern Europe, an effort to counter what many top defense officials see as a growing threat from Russian influence in the region.
The addition of the 2nd ABCT will assist the 3rd ID’s 1st ABCT, which has deployed alongside NATO allies in recent years.
Troopers with Delta Tank Company, 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, fire the main gun during unit gunnery March 29 at Fort Stewart, Georgia. This gunnery marked the first time 2nd ABCT troopers fired their newly delivered M1A1-SA Abrams tanks since the brigade converted from a light to an armored brigade combat team. (Pfc. Calab Franklin/Army)
The training soldiers recently completed is foundational to moving and shooting with armor. Gunnery involves taking a set of targets and then rolling through acquiring those targets, firing and striking while following the proper procedures for the equipment.
“Gunnery is beyond critical,” Mitchell said. “It is a necessary event to create lethal crews. Training like this is advantageous to the unit’s lethality.”
The “Spartan Brigade” went to war in the Iraq invasion as an armored brigade combat team, leading the capture of Baghdad in the infamous Thunder Run.
Due to military drawdowns and restructuring it was reformed into an infantry brigade nearly four years ago.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
“In the last 60 years, we’ve really focuses on isolated individuals,” but during large-scale maneuver warfare, units can become isolated just “by battlefield geometry," the Army's SERE school commander said.
President Joe Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act to speed production of infant formula and has authorized flights to import supply from overseas.
The remains of an American airman missing in World War II may be heading home, thanks to a chance discovery of records in flood-threatened archives in Thailand.
The supply of infant formula is running 40 percent to 50 percent below normal in commercial stores, but the most critical, specialized formulas have been even more depleted.