In early August, the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky conducted a 500-mile air assault to the Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana, testing new unit configurations. This brigade and two others, the 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division from Hawaii and the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division from Fort Drum, New York, are experimenting with new technology like counter-drone capabilities and smaller command posts. The goal is to transform all combat forces over the next five years, with results expected within the next year among these three brigades.
The Transformation in Contact initiative announced in 2023 focuses on tactical problem-solving at the brigade level, moving assets from brigade-centric fights to division level. By reconfiguring the way maneuver is approached and shrinking command posts, brigades will be free to focus on their main task of destruction. For example, the 2nd Mobile Brigade Combat Team is centered around mobility using the infantry squad vehicle, allowing them to work without resupply in the woods for extended periods.
Exercises have shown ways to greatly streamline operations for brigades, like using commercial tech for communication, setting up decoy command posts, and lessening setup times for command posts from 45 minutes to 10-20 minutes. Lessons learned from each brigade’s experiments will be shared with the Army’s senior leaders over the coming year to improve the composition and effectiveness of brigade combat teams across the divisions.
