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A brigade of a heavy division is a flexible organization designed to close with and destroy enemy forces on the battlefield using mobility, fire power, and shock effect. Its main focus is to defeat the enemy by conducting close operations while protecting its combat support, combat service support, and command and control facilities with successful rear operations. The brigade normally fights as part of a division. It influences the battle by task organizing assigned and attached combat and combat support forces, assigning missions and sectors, applying force multipliers, assigning and changing CS and CSS priorities, and constituting and committing the reserve.

The brigade is assigned varying numbers of armor and mechanized infantry battalions by the division commander to accomplish a specific mission. CS and CSS units are task organized to support the brigade as required. How the DISCOM commander task organizes to support units in the brigade area is addressed in Chapter 2. Though the supported units will vary, they will likely include both division and nondivisional elements. Corps units that may be operating in the brigade area are addressed in Chapter 3. Division elements which may typically operate in the brigade area include--

• Brigade HHC.
  

• Maneuver battalion task forces.
  

• Field artillery battalion.
  

• Engineer company.
  

• Air defense artillery battery.
  

• Military police platoon.
  

• Military intelligence company.
  

• Forward signal platoon.
  

• Chemical platoon.
  

• Smoke platoon.
  

• Attack helicopter battalion.
  

• Cavalry squadron.
  

• Forward support battalion.
  

• Air liaison officer.
  

Sustainment of the brigade in such an environment is the challenge facing CSS planners and operators. The brigade must be armed, fueled, fixed, and moved and its soldiers sustained to allow the brigade commander to take advantage of opportunities to achieve tactical advantage. This requires the FSB commander and staff as well as CSS planners and operators at division and DISCOM level and within the brigade units to incorporate the sustainment imperatives in every action taken. The sustainment imperatives are anticipation, integration, continuity, responsiveness, and improvisation. These are not substitutes for the basic tenets of AirLand Battle doctrine; they complement them.

CSS leaders and staffs must anticipate future missions. They do this by understanding the commander's plan and translating current developments into future requirements. The main purpose of anticipation is to help the brigade commander form a supportable plan. So the FSB commander and staff must develop the close relationship with the brigade staff as described in Chapter 3. The FSB commander may attend brigade staff meetings. He monitors the brigade command net to anticipate required changes to the FSB organization, employment, and operations.

This close relationship with the brigade staff is also required to ensure that sustainment operations are integrated with operations of the maneuver force. The brigade commander and staff plan tactical and CSS operations concurrently. The FSB commander and staff must provide the required input to the brigade planning process to ensure the scheme of maneuver and fire support plan can be supported logistically.

Another imperative is continuity of sustainment. The brigade commander will require continuous support to retain the initiative and to ensure the depth of operations is not inhibited by breaks in support. This represents a considerable challenge for the FSB and other CSS elements in the brigade area. It will require CSS assets to be able to provide continuous support while frequently relocating.

The CSS system must also be responsive. It must meet needs that change with little notice. FSB personnel must assume that changes in priorities, support operations, and organizations will be the norm; they must be ready to respond quickly.

Finally, sustainers must be prepared to improvise. The fluid nature of the AirLand Battlefield may quickly render routine support methods obsolete. This manual will suggest a number of support techniques for the FSB. However, leaders and staffs must not interpret a guideline or technique as an absolute requirement. If it is not effective in maintaining maximum combat power and momentum, FSB personnel must not be afraid to discard it. Sustainers must be innovative.

The two most important concepts in supporting the heavy brigade are forward support and area support.

As the name of the FSB implies, the focus of the CSS structure is on providing support as far forward as practical. Supplies, weapon systems, and repair assets for easily reparable equipment should be provided by the corps, MSB, or FSB to the field trains or beyond whenever practical. Also, the FSB should ensure damaged equipment not easily reparable is evacuated from as far forward as practical. Health service support should also be focused on forward support. As discussed in the next section, CSS assets organic to the combat and CS elements in the brigade are scarce. They should not be burdened by picking up supplies in the DSA or recovering damaged equipment to a maintenance collection point in the rear.

Because of the ever-changing combination of division units operating in the brigade area, it would be almost impossible and certainly inefficient to dedicate CSS units to support of strictly structured units. As discussed later in this manual, the DISCOM commander will have to cross-level assets when substantial changes are made in the size and types of units supported by an FSB. However, sufficient flexibility has been put in the FSB to accommodate minor variations in supported units and still provide direct support level logistics to all division and (with required augmentation) supporting corps units operating in the brigade area.

The FSB is part of the overall logistics system (and medical system) which sustain the brigade. The FSB is the operator providing the support link between DISCOM elements in the DSA and COSCOM units on the one hand and the supported units in the brigade area on the other. Support is pushed forward to the BSA based on requirements passed from the FSB in coordination with logistics planners in the brigade. Whenever possible, the FSB continues to push support forward. Specifics on such support are described later in this manual. Examples include maintenance support teams sent to work in battalion task force unit maintenance collection points, service battery sites, or field trains locations; FSB ambulances stationed at battalion aid stations; and forward tactical refueling points.

The support system does not end with the FSB. The FSB is essentially a DS-level support organization. (However, as discussed in Chapter 9, the medical company provides Level I and II medical care to division units on an area basis.) In most cases, individual units such as maneuver battalions are responsible for unit-level support. Also, elements such as teams may operate away from their parent units. Unless the elements are attached for logistics, parent units are responsible for providing unit-level support to those elements. When mission requirements exceed the organic support capabilities of the parent unit, the unit may coordinate for support with the brigade rear CP before the unit enters the brigade area. The brigade may task a subordinate unit to provide support. However, if it does, the tasked unit will likely require additional assets from the parent unit. Required assets will probably include class III and V haulers and maintenance personnel, class IX items, and tools.

For instance, a CS platoon/company with a direct support mission may be preparing to operate in a battalion task force area for an extended period. The parent company/ battalion may coordinate with the brigade S4 to have the battalion provide support. Although the parent unit's logistics assets may not be capable in all cases of splitting up to provide support, as much as possible the parent unit should send cooks, trucks and drivers, and maintenance and medical assets to work with the battalion task force trains personnel.

Such support is unit-level support. It includes food service, distribution of supplies to companies and other subordinate elements, unit maintenance, unit-level health service support, movement of organic assets, and unit-level graves registration. The assets available to provide this support vary among the division units in the brigade, as follows:

• The brigade HHC has food service, unit maintenance, and limited supply distribution assets.
  

• The maneuver battalions have a full complement of unit-level assets. A complete discussion of their operations is in FM 71-2.
  

• The field artillery battalion in direct support of the brigade also comes with assets to perform unit-level support of the battalion, as covered in FM 6-20-1. The service battery has a battalion supply element, an ammunition platoon, and a maintenance platoon. The battalion also has a food service section and medical section. A general support reinforcing corps battalion operating in the brigade area will bring similar unit-level support assets.
  

• The division engineer company comes with organic support assets, though fuel-handling and medical capabilities are limited. Currently, the company has one mobile kitchen trailer, two tank and pump units, and a number of cargo trucks. Corps mechanized engineer elements operating in the brigade area bring comparable unit-level support personnel and equipment as well as organic assets to perform DS maintenance on engineer equipment.
  

• The ADA battery (plus or minus a platoon) can normally be expected to locate in the brigade area. The battery has ammunition-hauling, unit maintenance, and limited refueling capability. It receives medical support on an area basis and is fed by the brigade HHC and task forces. The battery normally has a maintenance slice in the UMCP of each supported task force. The remainder of the battery headquarters, along with some refueling and recovery assets and several cargo trucks, locate in the BSA. Operations are discussed in FM 44-3.
  

• The direct support MP platoon works out of the BSA and has no CSS assets with it except for one unit mechanic from the MP company headquarters. Other support, including DS maintenance, is received from the FSB on an area basis. Details appear in FM 19-1.
  

• The military intelligence company team is typically in general support of the division. As discussed in FM 34-10, CSS has been a particular problem due to the limited assets in the MI company and the wide dispersion of small teams throughout the brigade area. Meals and ammunition are coordinated through S4 channels to be provided in conjunction with support to the nearest maneuver element, or the company team support element must distribute them. Fuel is a special problem. If the MI battalion TPU is not available to the company, it should try to coordinate through S4 channels to receive fuel from the nearest maneuver element. If that is not possible, the company must rely on shuttling 5-gallon cans from the BSA to all forward sites.
  

• The forward signal platoon DS to the brigade typically receives support from the brigade HHC at the main CP and from the FSB in the BSA. Details on signal CSS appear in FM 11-50.
  

• Like the MP platoon, the chemical elements bring no organic CSS assets and rely on the FSB. The resupply of MOGAS for decontamination apparatus and the smoke generators will require purchase of CTA fuel containers. Decontaminants will be resupplied by using downloaded decontamination equipment or a TPU. (Fog oil resupply is covered in Chapter 7.)
  

• The attack helicopter battalion and division cavalry squadron have full complements of organic support assets to include supply, maintenance, and medical assets. Assets are deployed in either unit or echeloned trains. Unit-level support operations are discussed in FMs 1-111 and 1-112.
  

• The FSB also has its own unit-level resources. However, when elements are employed forward for extended periods, unit support will be coordinated with the supported battalion. For example, as thoroughly discussed in Chapter 8, maintenance support teams are task organized to support battalion task forces. Since these teams habitually work at the battalion UMCP, their support must be coordinated with the battalion.