National Guard Reorganization

[tomahawk6]

The Guard will move its force into 8 divisions. Back to the old Cold War structure. The Kremlin will hardly let us move 8 divisions should the balloon go up. The active Army will have to hold until help comes. We would have to hope the Poles and Germans can give us the time to get 8 divisions into place.

"WASHINGTON — The Army National Guard will move most of its brigades under the command of its eight division headquarters as it reorganizes its fighting formations to give the force more combat power and some soldiers new career opportunities, officials said.

The Guard move will mark a substantial increase in the number of fully manned divisions that the Army can deploy, as only the service's 10 active-duty divisions are now filled out with subordinate units, said Lt. Gen. Daniel Hokanson, the director of the Army National Guard. The increase to 18 complete Army divisions comes at a time when service officials believe a major conflict with a near-peer rival — namely Russia or China — would require the employment of full divisions, he said. "

https://www.stripes.com/news/army/army-guard-begins-to-reorganize-force-into-eight-divisions-to-prepare-for-possible-fights-with-russia-and-china-1.639671

 

[FJAG]

There's already a fairly organized structure to the eight existing ARNG divisions which looks like this:

28th Infantry Division (PA ARNG)
2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (2nd IBCT) (PA ARNG)
56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team (56th SBCT) (PA ARNG)
28th Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade (28th ECAB) (PA ARNG)
29th Infantry Division (VA ARNG)
30th Armored Brigade Combat Team (30th ABCT) (NC ARNG)
53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (53rd IBCT) (FL ARNG)
116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (116th IBCT) (VA ARNG)
29th Combat Aviation Brigade (29th CAB) (MD ARNG)
34th Infantry Division (MN ARNG)
1st Armored Brigade Combat Team (1st ABCT) (MN ARNG)
2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (2nd IBCT) (IA ARNG)
32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (32nd IBCT) (WI ARNG)
116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team (116th CBCT) (ID ARNG)
34th Combat Aviation Brigade (34th CAB) (MN ARNG)
35th Infantry Division (KS ARNG)
33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (33rd IBCT) (IL ARNG)
39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (39th IBCT) (AR ARNG)
45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (45th IBCT) (OK ARNG)
35th Combat Aviation Brigade (35th CAB) (MO ARNG)
36th Infantry Division (TX ARNG)
3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (3rd IBCT) (Regular Army) (formerly of the 10th Mountain Division)
56th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (56th IBCT) (TX ARNG)
72nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (72nd IBCT) (TX ARNG)
155th Armored Brigade Combat Team (155th ABCT) (MS ARNG)
256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (256th IBCT) (LA ARNG)
36th Combat Aviation Brigade (36th CAB) (TX ARNG)
38th Infantry Division (IN ARNG)
37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (37th IBCT) (OH ARNG)
76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (76th IBCT) (IN ARNG)
278th Armored Cavalry Regiment (278th ACR) (TN ARNG)
38th Combat Aviation Brigade (38th CAB) (IN ARNG)
40th Infantry Division (CA ARNG)
29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (29th IBCT) (HI ARNG)
41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team (41st IBCT) (OR ARNG)
79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (79th IBCT) (CA ARNG)
40th Combat Aviation Brigade (40th CAB) (CA ARNG)
42nd Infantry Division (NY ARNG)
27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (27th IBCT) (NY ARNG)
44th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (44th IBCT) (NJ ARNG)
42nd Combat Aviation Brigade (42nd CAB) (NY ARNG)
86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (86th IBCT) (VT ARNG)
197th Field Artillery Brigade (197th FAB) (NH ARNG)
26th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade(26th MEB) (MA ARNG)

What I see as the major difference is that the ARNG divisions do not have sustainment brigades/commands such as the Active ones and while most of them do have artillery battalions integral to the brigade combat teams do not have a divisional artillery headquarters as part of their establishment. I expect that there are additional shortfalls in the establishments which this will correct.

The whole thing is therefore not as much of an organizational restructuring as it sounds to be at first blush and the target date of October 2021 sounds quite doable. It will be interesting to see if there are reassignments between divisions so as to form heavy armored divisions and light infantry divisions or whether the Armored/Cavalry and Stryker BCTs will be assigned to Active Army divisions.

Virtually all of the combat support/sustainment entities in the ARNG/USAR are modular stand-alone brigades/elements under administrative headquarters. While I expect some of these will be plugged into the revised div structure I expect most will stay plug and playable to suit various corps and theatre deployments.

:cheers:

 

[tomahawk6]

The active Army and the USAR can flesh these NG divisions. Remember an FA brigade can double as
divarty.

https://www.usar.army.mil/Commands/Functional/