PPT Slide
Firepower is Low-tech: IBCT artillery is towed 155mm.
PROBLEM: Towed artillery is a dinosaur. Poor survivability, no counter-battery capability and decreased rates of precision fire. Furthermore, this towed unit requires more personnel and far more logistics than self-propelled artillery.
Wheeled Armor Chassis with Mobile Gun is not a combat system!
PROBLEM: Mobile Gun (105mm) doesn’t fire full-power 105mm rounds and will not shoot effectively on-the-move. Without a vehicle that can fire and move cross-country like a modern direct-fire tracked tank, entire formation is at severe risk! [Lesson from wheeled, tankless 9th HTTB Division in ‘80s] Simply put, this force has no fire and maneuver capability to gain a positional advantage over an adversary in a close (under 5 km) fight.
No New Tactics or Organization: IBCT Tactics are unsound. PROBLEM: Organization: Same old reinforced brigade. Tactics: On the one hand, avoid contact with the enemy - not an option. On the other, air-filled, rubber-tired wheeled armored cars designed to support dismounted infantry in the attack cannot traverse terrain to support-by-fire nor avoid road ambushes [fate of Group Mobile 100]. These tactics were tried and abandoned in Afghanistan after Russians sustained heavy casualties against the low-tech Afghans operating on foot on commanding high ground, with heavy machine guns, RPGs.
Army Personnel System Unchanged: Temporary Stability is Artificial.
PROBLEM: Current structure is filled by Individual Replacement system denying cohesion, stability, and led by leaders that are constantly rotated in and out of critical positions demanding experience.