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Army quietly deactivates its small-team reconnaissance units – News – Stripes

SAN ANTONIO — The Army will quietly deactivate its three long-range surveillance companies in the active-duty force in the remaining days of January, along with four National Guard companies in 2018, the Army said. The nearly 100 soldiers in each of three active-duty companies attached to three Corps commands at Fort Hood in Texas, Fort…

SAN ANTONIO — The Army will quietly deactivate its three long-range surveillance companies in the active-duty force in the remaining days of January, along with four National Guard companies in 2018, the Army said.

The nearly 100 soldiers in each of three active-duty companies attached to three Corps commands at Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington will be reassigned to other units at those posts, said Lt. Col. Christina Kretchman, an Army spokeswoman.

Army National Guard units in Nebraska, Georgia, Indiana and Alabama will fold up their long-range surveillance companies and reassign those soldiers in August 2018, Kretchman said.

Stars and Stripes first reported in July that senior leaders decided to deactivate the companies through an evaluation in the Total Army Analysis, a force structure program used to balance the composition of the force with strategy and resources.

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Computer models were used to conclude long-range surveillance companies were not in demand by ground commanders.

Defense analysts have said Army commanders have an aversion to risk and a growing preference to use technology such as satellites and drones for reconnaissance rather than insert small teams of soldiers.

via www.stripes.com

Eh. I'm ambivalent. One the one hand, not many commanders are keen to put a six man team deep behind the lines unless it's a Special Forces team. Seems like something of a duplication of effort.

One the other hand, it's a capability we might genuinely need at some point in the future. Maybe keep one company just to keep the tribal knowledge handy.

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Responses to “Army quietly deactivates its small-team reconnaissance units – News – Stripes”

  1. Ron Snyder

    Of all the billions that the Army spends, this seems like a shortsighted cut.

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  2. Krag

    An SF team used for recon is a horrible waste of resources. You just don’t need two officers and a gaggle of SNCOs to perform reconnaissance, at any depth beyond the FLOT/FEBA. This is a dumb move in my opinion.

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  3. Jim

    That seems short-sighted. The opening moments are blind everyone from space. Now what’s left of the high ground? Radars, scrambled, scrambled or fried. But you still need intelligence from behind the lines. So, ” send in your snipers” ? Send in your disrupters? Now load them down with comm gear? Or their Apple phone to call home? Yup.

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  4. Paul L. Quandt

    Maybe now that we have some real leadership at DOD, some good decisions will be made.
    Paul L. Quandt

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  5. timactual

    Our military reminds me of an aristocratic English gentleman’s wardrobe. There are country suits, town suits, morning coats, evening wear, etc., and various and sundry accessories and shoes for every possible occasion.
    LRRPs (they will always be LRRPs to me, just as a mess hall is a mess hall and not a goldurned “dining Facility”) may be nice to have but they have limited utility and are not cheap. If the need is really critical, I am sure a corps commander can find some rangers to do it.

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  6. Chris Green

    If the enemy fights us like that we should have elements of our force to counter it. The French & Indian War shouldn’t be lost on our commanders? Send out scouts to locate the enemy, pin them down and hammer and anvil them.

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  7. SFC Dunlap 173d RVN

    Great points all especially timeactual. Served in RVN as a BN reconaisance platoon member and after joining the 36th Abn Bde (TXARNG) and watching its deactivation got to watch the rebirth of LRRP/LRSC/LRSD assets. Tough job to be beyond the FLOT. One lives in a hole (where you do ALL human requirements), and depend on sometimes cranky communications for the critical passing of observed intell. Of course too infil/exfil ops. I’m a bit surprised it lasted as long as it did.

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