Forwards to the Next Battle Area - or, LEAPFROG!
Within the Brigade Combat-group, the two Cavalry Battalions, each consisting of 58 SA-21B main battle tanks, are intended to break up into two Battalion-plus Manoeuvre Formations (BMF), wherein each will be paired with an Armoured Infantry Battalion. Typically, the Brigade Commander will opt to remove a platoon from the first company of each Armoured Infantry Battalion. This platoon will be used for guarding the rear area, as a small reserve, and for protecting the commander himself or his subunits.
The total strength of the BMF, then, is as follows:
1274 × all ranks, led by a Colonel
58 × MBT
55 × IFV (counting removed platoon)
17 × Recce tanks
67 × other APC; including: 14 × ambulances & 14 × recovery vehicles
5 × MBT-ARV
The following rear-echelon equipment may be left in the rear-area to increase the mobility of the BM Formation
22 × lorries
30 × land rovers
1 × IMV
and equipped with;
11 × 60-mm mortars
9 × 120-mm mortars
6 × ATGM
The Cavalry commanders are expected to fight in their main battle tanks, although the mobility vehicle may also follow in case the commander or his deputy needs to rapidly move away from the front without reducing firepower. In that case the mobility vehicle carries an extra sergeant to man his tank. The Brigade commander has two BM-Formations to play with, and they may be bolstered by the addition of a close air defence company, or a company of engineers in tracked personnel carriers. Broadly speaking, these BM-Formations will fight together, as a single unit, and their needs will be considered collectively.
The stated aim of the BM Formation is to "Find the enemy and kill him and then find his friends, and kill them also." The tactical concerns of the unit's disposition are no matter to the unit commander, only to the Brigade commander. Under the Objective Command system, the Brigade commander will allocate a target and any parameters to the unit commander, who has all the flexibility in the world to carry them out: although he may not depart from any of the provided parameters.
March order of the BM-F is for each Cavalry Squadron to pair with an Armoured Infantry Company, and for the reconnaissance vehicles to take the lead march in two groups over a front of approximately two kilometres to ten kilometres around the area designated by the Brigade Commander. Upon contact with the enemy, the BM Commander will identify the best terrain possible to mount a continuous attack over, and concentrate his force on that position. This is known as the "Centre of the Battle Area", or the COBA. This is not necessarily the physical centre. The group of reconnaissance units that did not identify the COBA will screen the advance of the main force.
To take the COBA, the BM-F Commander will use his organic mortars to lay barrages of smoke and attack with concentrated power, approximately one third to one half of his total force. To accomplish this task he may be offered Brigade artillery support from the Brigade's 32 155-mm guns. After occupying the COBA in due haste, he will direct one third of the total force that he did not use to take the COBA to attack the Remainder of the Battle Area, or the ROBA. In the mean time, whatever recce assets remain under his command will be used to quickly advance and reconnoitre the ground ahead so that the last third of presently unoccupied troops may occupy the FOBA, or Forwards of the Battle Area.
Broadly speaking, the BM-F will be split up into four groups:
O(bjective)1 Group (COBA)
O2 Group (ROBA)
O3 Group (FOBA)
O4 Group
With each group consisting of a company of infantry and a squadron of tanks, although the O4 group may be used with the O1 group to take the COBA, or it may be used as a reserve. Once the area is secured, intelligence passed forwards to the Brigade Commander will allow him to select the next objective: the mark of a good unit commander is to select an avenue of attack that likely corresponds with the next best objective.
The broad intent of the method is in alignment with the "conclusive battle" doctrine, in which Cavalry Brigade Combat-groups attack decisive sections of the enemy's main force, with the aim of breaking it up as soon as possible by effecting decisive cracks in his front.
