ORBAT - US Expeditionary Units, Stryker Battalion

The Stryker Battalion Orbat is covered by a lot of material on the web but converting them to useable wargames units can be a little challenging if your not operating at 1:1 because of the mix of capability available in the Sub Unit. The Stryker Battalion and Brigade Combat Team are a couple of my favourite Units from a number perspectives:

• The vehicles look great.
• The number of variants provides a bit of a modelling challenge.
• The Organisation is interesting and quite different to anything else.
• The intended use as a Mid-weight follow on force to early entry forces offers interesting scenarios and task org, in conjunction with USMC, Airborne and Heavy Weight Forces.
• The Rising effectiveness of the digitised Mid-weight force against traditional Heavy weight forces is an interesting area to explore in the context of the Air/Land Air/Sea and Littoral Manoeuvre war-fighting doctrines that have emerged since the end of the Cold War.
• The use of Expeditionary Forces in the Pacific and Africa.

Organisationally I believe the US Army has been imaginative in composing the Brigade and the Battalion, I think you would have to go back to world war 2 and German Reconnaissance units to see such structures in a single unit. The mix of capability integral to the unit and subunit when used in conjunction with US Air, Aviation and the Brigades RISTA and Anti Armour capability creates a very credible mid weight force for rapid deployment and intervention operations.

The evolving US Maritime deployment concepts that include the new high speed Spearhead Class HSVs makes Rapid deployment and Littoral manoeuvre far mor credible particularly around the Pacific and Africa.

Capable of carrying a Company and their vehicles the HSVs offer a Sea Landing alternative to current Air Landing capability into:

• Low capability third world ports.
• Over secured beaches
• On to floating docks as operated by the MPSRONS

All this allows a potent Mid Weight follow on force to rapidly support the early entry USMC and US Airborne elements. The numbers procured would probably allow up to 2 Stryker Brigade Combat Teams to manoeuvre in a Littoral environment. USPACOMS 25 Infantry Division is composed of 2 SBCT, 1 Light Infantry Brigade, 1 Parachute Infantry Brigade and 1 Aviation Brigade, making for an interesting expeditionary configuration.

The SBCT's Combat elements include 3 Stryker Battalions, a Cavelry Squadron (Recceconaisance Battalion) an Artillery Battalion equipped with the M777A2 towed 155mm gun and an Anti Tank Company. the RISTA Squadron being the component that builds UAVs in with 3 Troops equipped with Stryker Reconaisance variants and MGS.

The top level Orbat of the Stryker battalion with 3 Infantry Companies, a Morter Platoon and a headquarter s looks less than inspiring but it's when you look into the Infantry Company that it gets interesting.

Each of the battalions 3 sub units are composed of 3 Infantry Platoons a Weapons Platoon and an HQ.

whilst not a task organised unit it is composed to fight within the context of its basic organisation with organic direct and indirect fire support including a Fire Support Team, Snipers and Weapons Squads within the platoons equipped with M240s.

However you scale your vehicles in your Wargames orbits and I have variously used 1:5 or 1:3 in Rapid fire type games, you need the mix of capability in these subunits to come through. USMC Light Armoured Battalions and Companies pose similar challenges and are probably derived from the same wheeled experimental units from the 80s and 90s.

I originally organised my Stryker units at 1:5 and try to keep to the general approach of 1 APC or truck per infantry company, although given the importance of the firepower deployed on Modern APCs find that I increasingly have to bend this rule. The conundrum with the Stryker battalion comes in trying to generate a representation of the company with a limited number of vehicles. I decided to look at the problem from a battalion perspective. effectively the Battalion deploys:

• 9 MGS
• 10 Morters, 6 In Companies 4 in Morter Platoon
• 4 Fire Support Teams?
• 4 Recce Vehicles
• 42 + Lots of APCs

@ 1:5

With that in mind I designed the Companies to have two vehicles 1 APC, and either an MGS or a Morter vehicle . The Morter and Recce Platoons to have a Vehicle each and Bn HQ to be a command variant and a HMMWV. Each company then has, an M240 Team, Javalin, Sniper and a few rifle men and SAW Gunners for a total of around 9 Figures.

@ 1:3

It's a lot easier, each Company gets an MGS a Morter and an APC, with the remainder of the Battalion being as Before.

In addition to the Battalions organic assets I have also Produced a GW Stryker, attached from the Brigade Anti Armour Patoon. And represent a UAV from the Cav Squadron. Although I may increase the Cavelry representation to bulk out the Recce element a bit.

References:

The Brigade: A History, Its Organisation and Employment in the US Army

FM-3-21.31 The Stryker Brigade Combat Team

FM 3-20.96 (Cavalry Squadron – RSTA, dated December 2002)

FM 3-21.9 (SBCT Infantry Rifle Platoon & Squad, dated December 2002)

FM 3-21.11 (SBCT Infantry Rifle Company, dated January 2003)FM 3-21.21 (SBCT Infantry Battalion, dated April 2003)

FM 3-21.31 (Stryker Brigade Combat Team, dated March 2003)

FM 3-21.92 (Tactical Employment of Anti-Armor Platoons & Companies, dated December 2002)

FM 3-34.221 (Engineer Operations – SBCT, dated January 2005)

Stryker Combat Vehicles (New Vanguard) @ Amazon

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