Argumentative Essay

Army Engineers provide a wide range of engineer support to Maneuver Battalions.  The concept of the Brigade Engineer Battalion (BEB) is the best way to support the Brigade Combat Team (BCT) fight. Recently the Army has restructured engineer support from the Division to BCT level starting with the Brigade Special Troops Battalion (BSTB). Restructuring first began as a way to increase the engineer capabilities, command, and control. The transformation is mainly geared toward the recent shift to irregular warfare and simultaneous offensive, defensive and stability operations. The current engineer force structure of the BEB is a significant improvement from the BSTB and although it is not perfect, will better enable the Army’s ability to win in a complex world.

When comparing the BEB to the BSTB significant changes and improvements have been made to create a structure that works well in the current operating environment.  The following Senior Army Commanders Comments explain many of the short falls with the BSTB and why the BEB is the better option.  “BSTB is not an adequate substitute for an EN BN HQ.  The requirement to build bases, COPs, JSSs exacerbated the situation (General Odierno).” The BEB unlike the BSTB has a Construction Cell and Senior Engineer Officers and NCO’s with the abilities to enable these projects to be successful.  For example when 10th Mountain was deployed in 2013 there was only one engineer lieutenant and a chemical NCO on staff who dealt with all construction and destruction during retrograde.  There was no engineer battalion HQ, the Battalion commander was an armor officer and was not experienced in engineer operations, leaving all the engineer tasks up to an inexperienced second lieutenant and NCO.   “The Army lacks engineer C2 and staff capability within the BCTs.  The issue is mainly at the BCT level and hinders an ability to balance reconstruction with maneuver operations.  The Army cannot afford to just move EAB units into the BCT’s without impacting operational level capabilities. (LTG Chiarelli).” The BEB has significant engineer capabilities over the BSTB, the staff and command team are engineers and the battalion has two engineer companies as opposed to one.   It is not possible to support a BCT with just one Engineer Company and a staff that does not understand what the engineers bring to the fight.  “My BSTB Commanders need to be Engineers and it is critical for the BSTB staff to be Engineer Heavy (MG Webster, 3ID).” (ARCIC Senior Leader Comments n.d.) The biggest take away from these Senior Commander’s comments are that the BSTB did not have enough engineer support to be effective in the BCT.  Without a staff of engineers and an engineer Command team, the experience and leadership was not available to advise and assist the maneuver commanders on how to use engineers and the capabilities of the Battalion to be successful.  The BEB is a significant improvement over the BSTB and has proven to be successful in BCT’s.