Robert J Curran

ADA Battalion in the Heavy Division: Can It Provide the Necessary Support? Robert J Curran

Publisher Marketing: This study investigates whether the Air Defense Artillery Battalion, organic to the Army of Excellence Heavy Division (Armored or Mechanized), furnishes viable support in the context of FM 100-5, Operations and FM 44-1 Air Defense Artillery, and satisfies the basic tenets of AirLand Battle. To obtain conclusions for this issue, historical examples of ADA support in World War Two, Arab-Israeli Wars, and most recently, the Bekaa Valley raid of 1982 are cited for possible lessons learned. A comparison of FM 100-5 and FM 44-1 is made in order to present similarities or disparities between the two documents, and then followed by an analysis of the ADA battalion command structure, selected functional areas, and organic equipment. The study concludes that the heavy division's ability to function on the modern battlefield is severely constrained when employed in a theater of operations with less than air parity or superiority. Command and control, Army airspace management, employment doctrine, and basic ADA tenets are either violated or incapable of being performed adequately due to manual control procedures and out of date equipment. The study concludes that the solution to the problem is a need for combined arms cooperation in developing means by which the divisions can defend themselves and carry out operations. Additionally, state of the art equipment needs to be fielded quickly in order to stave off this weakness in our ability to defend the divisions, but specific weapon systems are not recommended.