Last Cavalry Regiment

<p>In the years since Operation Desert Storm there has been a significant restructuring of the United States Army that has had an enormous impact on the structure of the cavalry at brigade level and above. It began by ensuring the existence of a cavalry organization at every echelon of the Army from battalion to corps then stripped them from all organizations higher than brigade. The end result was the addition of a cavalry squadron at the brigade level at the expense of the divisional cavalry squadron which no longer exists. Concurrently the Army retained only one of its three active Armored Cavalry Regiments (ACRs) and not a single one of its National Guard ACRs. The continued existence of the one remaining ACR (3d ACR) is still uncertain as the Army failed to address the organization in all of its major transformation documents. It thus begs the question is the ACR still relevant? Given the desire of the government of the United States to achieve quick victories with fewer troops through rapid dominance as demonstrated in Operation Iraqi Freedom I do the capabilities of the armored cavalry regiment fit into this paradigm given a future potential adversary? Using the hypothetical example of a conflict with Iran it is reasonable to assume that the United States will attempt to once again use rapid dominance to achieve its goals quickly with as few troops as possible. Analyzing the mission and the threat the enemy will pose there is the identified need for a ground unit that will operate independently in front of the attacking corps in order to allow the corps and division commanders to preserve their combat power until the decisive place and time. Additionally that corps commander will need an independent unit to operate over hundreds of kilometers in order to defeat the rear area threat. Our doctrine identifies the ACR as this type of unit as its structure and doctrine is ideally suited to act as a covering force at the front or flanks of a corps and to</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>