Updating tactics: army revises doctrine for modular brigades.

• Author: Tiron, Roxana

Caught between the pressures of war in the Middle East and the need to reorganize, the U.S. Army is juggling new methods of combat training while rewriting the rulebook for equipment and tactics.

By adopting modular brigades, the Army is adjusting how it schools its troops, said officials. Much of the coming change in preparing soldiers for battle was dictated by experience gained in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The purpose of reorganizing the Army into modular units is to provide the joint force commander with the "right land forces, and the right command and control for the mission," explained Lt. Gen. John Curran, director of the futures center at Army Training and Doctrine Command.

The modularity concept creates standard brigade configurations that contain a pre-requisite combined arms capability composed of maneuver, fires, aviation, sustainment and protection elements, Curran said. "The mix of forces is determined by the mission and not the large standing organization that we have today in a division," he said.

The smallest tactical units will not see much difference in the way they prepare under the new modularity concept, Curran told National Defense at an expeditionary warfare conference organized by the National Defense Industrial Association.

By contrast, staffs will make bigger adjustments to work within the modular brigades, said Curran. "The staffs are organized differently. They are in many cases more robust," he said. One example lies in intelligence, he added, where staff officers "are training differently in the use of information technology to improve battle management and command."

"For captains, this is where the change shows," explained Brig. Gen. Ben Freakley, commander of Fort Benning, Ga., at this year's infantry conference. Modularity is emphasized in the advanced captain courses at Fort Benning, Fort Sill, Okla. (artillery) and Fort Knox, Ky. (armor). Majors training at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., also will be recipients of this new schooling.

"My brigade operations officer had to primarily think about training a tank battalion and two infantry battalions, which was all about gunnery and maneuver," Freakley said. These battalions worked together with the engineers, the support battalion and artillery when assigned to a fight, he explained.

"The going-in position was 'well, this support battalion or this direct support artillery, or engineers will be trained by their units. We will get...