Mechanized infantry
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Mechanized infantry are infantry equipped with armored personnel carriers (APCs), or infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) for transport and combat (see also mechanized force).
Mechanized infantry are distinguished from motorized infantry, who are transported to battle by trucks or motor vehicles, in that their vehicles provide a degree of protection from hostile fire, as opposed to "soft-skinned" wheeled vehicles (trucks or jeeps). Most APCs and IFVs are fully tracked, or are all-wheel drive vehicles (6×6 or 8×8), for mobility across rough ground. The support weapons for mechanized infantry are also provided with motorized transport, or are built directly into combat vehicles, in order to keep pace with the mechanized infantry in combat. For units equipped with most types of APC or any type of IFV, fire support weapons such as machine guns, autocannons, small-bore direct-fire howitzers, and even anti-tank guided missiles are often mounted directly on the infantry's own transport vehicles.
Compared with "light" (foot) infantry or motorized infantry, mechanized infantry can maintain rapid tactical movement and (if mounted in IFVs) possess more integral firepower. They require more combat supplies (ammunition, spares and especially fuel) and a comparatively large proportion of their manpower is required to crew and maintain the vehicles. For example, most APCs mount a section of seven or eight infantrymen but have a crew of two. Most IFVs carry only six or seven infantry but require a crew of three. To be effective in the field, mechanized units also require large numbers of fitters and mechanics with specialised recovery vehicles.
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[edit] History
Arguably, the first Mechanized infantry were 36 two-man infantry squads carried forward by Mark V* tanks at the Battle of Amiens in 1918. In a battle of such scale, their contribution went unnoticed.
Towards the end of World War I, all the armies involved were faced with the problem of maintaining the momentum of an attack. Tanks, artillery or infiltration tactics could all be used to break through an enemy defense, but almost all the offensives launched in 1918 ground to a halt after a few days. Pursuing infantry quickly became exhausted, and artillery, supplies and fresh formations could not be brought forward over the battlefields quickly enough to maintain the pressure on the regrouping enemy.
It was widely acknowledged that cavalry were too vulnerable to be used on most European battlefields, although many armies continued to deploy them. Motorised Infantry could maintain rapid movement, but their trucks required either a good road network, or firm open terrain (such as desert). They were unable to traverse a battlefield obstructed by craters, barbed wire and trenches. Tracked or all-wheel drive vehicles were to be the solution.
Practical soldiers such as Heinz Guderian in Germany and Mikhail Tukhachevsky in the Soviet Union recognised that tank units required close support from infantry and other arms, and that these supporting arms needed to maintain the same pace as the tanks. As the Germans rearmed in the 1930s, they equipped some infantry units in their new Panzer (armoured) divisions with the Half-track SdKfz 251, which could keep up with tanks on almost any terrain. The French Army also created Light Mechanised (Légère Méchanique) divisions in which some infantry units possessed small tracked carriers. Together with the motorisation of the other infantry and support units, this gave both armies highly mobile armoured formations. The German doctrine was to use these to exploit breakthroughs in Blitzkrieg offensives, the French envisaged them being used to shift reserves rapidly in a defensive battle.
The Soviet Red Army did not immediately follow this trend because of the confusion of the Great Purge[citation needed], although they did practice tank desant. The British Army had established an Experimental Mechanised Force in 1927 but failed to pursue this line due to budget constraints and the prior need to garrison the frontiers of the Empire.
[edit] World War II
From the outset of World War II, German mechanized infantry had a disproportionately large number of successful operations. As World War II progressed, the Germans integrated tanks or assault guns with mechanized infantry as combined arms Panzergrenadier Divisions, providing mobile anti-tank defense and close-up direct fire support for the infantry.
Because the German half track APC was more expensive and time-consuming to manufacture than a truck, it should be noted that barely a quarter or a third of the infantry in Panzer or Panzergrenadier divisions was mechanized, except in a few favoured formations. However, most German reconnaissance units in these formations were also primarily mechanised infantry, while the Allies generally used armoured cars or light tanks for reconnaissance purposes.
Most other armies of the period also fielded mechanized infantry in units up to brigade in size. Their armored divisions and some armored brigades also included a mechanized infantry element for combined arms support. For example, "Type A" British armoured brigades, which were intended for independent operations, had a "motor infantry" battalion mounted in Bren carriers or (later) in Lend-Lease halftracks. ("Type B" brigades lacked an infantry component and were subordinated to infantry formations.) All US Armored Divisions had three battalions of 'Armored Infantry' fully mounted in M2 and M3 halftracks.
Later in the war, the United States Army used large numbers of M3 Half-track vehicles to give their infantry mobility. The Canadian and British armies also used expedients such as the Kangaroo APC, usually for specific operations rather than to create permanent mechanised infantry formations.
Like the Germans, the Soviet army fielded division-sized mechanized infantry units which they called Mechanized Corps, usually consisting of one tank brigade and three mechanized infantry brigades (mounted in lend-lease trucks[citation needed]), plus artillery and other support units. New Zealand fielded a division that was sent to Italy, with an organization intermediate between an armoured division and a mechanized infantry division.
[edit] The Cold War
In the post-war era, the early years of the Cold War, the Soviet Red Army and NATO further developed the equipment and doctrine for mechanized infantry. Though not the first tracked APC, the American M113 was the first in widespread use which gave the infantry the same mobility and almost the same protection as tanks (including against Nuclear, Biological and Chemical, or NBC threats). In Vietnam, it was often fitted with extra armament and firing ports and used as an ad-hoc Infantry Fighting Vehicle. Even more important for future developments was the Soviet BMP-1, which was the first true IFV. The introduction of this vehicle prompted the development of similar vehicles in Western armies, such as the West German Marder and United States M2 Bradley.
Unlike the APC which merely transported the infantry from place to place under armoured protection, the IFV possessed firepower which could support the infantry in attack or defence. Many IFVs were equipped with firing ports from which their infantry could fire their weapons from inside, becoming an integral part of the IFV's fire power.
Soviet organization led to different tactics between the "light" and "heavy" varieties of mechanized infantry. In the Soviet Army, a first-line "Motor Rifle" division usually had two regiments equipped with the wheeled BTR-60 APC and one with the tracked BMP-1 IFV. The "light" regiments were intended to make dismounted attacks on the division's flanks while the BMP-equipped "heavy" regiment supported the division's tank regiment on the main axis of advance. Both types of infantry regiment nevertheless were officially titled "Motor Rifle" units.
A line of development in the Soviet Armed Forces was the provision of specialised IFV's for use by their airborne forces. The first of these was the BMD-1, which had the same firepower as the BMP-1, but which could be carried in or even parachuted from the standard Soviet transport aircraft. This made airborne formations into mechanized infantry, at the cost of reducing their "bayonet" strength. They were used in this role in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. This trend was not followed by Western nations.
[edit] The present day
At present, almost all infantry units from industrialized nations are provided with some type of motor transport. Infantry units equipped with IFVs rather than lighter vehicles are commonly designated as "heavy", indicating more combat power but also more costly long-range transportation requirements.
In the British Army, "heavy" units equipped with the tracked Warrior IFV are described as "Armoured Infantry", and units with the wheeled Saxon APC as "Mechanised Infantry". This convention is becoming widespread; for example the French Army has "Motorisées" units equipped with the wheeled VAB and "Mécanisées" (armoured) units with the tracked AMX-10P.
The transport and other logistic requirements have led many armies to adopt wheeled APCs when their existing stocks of tracked APCs require replacement. An example is the Canadian Army, who have had great success in the present Afghanistan situation, using their LAV III IFV. The US Army is also following this trend, forming brigades which use the Stryker wheeled IFV (although they will continue to field "heavy" formations for many years to come). On the other hand, the Italian, Spanish and Swedish armies are adopting (and exporting) new indigenously-produced tracked IFVs.
A recent trend seen in the Israel Defense Forces and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is the introduction of exceptionally well-armoured APCs such as the IDF Achzarit which are converted from obsolete Main Battle Tanks (such as the Russian T-55). Such vehicles are expedients, and lack of space prevents the armament of an IFV being carried in addition to an infantry section or squad. In the Russian Army, such vehicles were introduced for fighting in urban areas, where the risk from short range infantry anti-tank weapons such as the RPG-7 is highest, after Russian tank and motor infantry units suffered heavy losses fighting insurgents in Grozny, Chechnya in 1995.
Many APCs and IFVs currently under development are intended for rapid deployment by aircraft. New technologies which promise reduction in weight, such as electric drive, may be incorporated. However, facing a similar threat in Post-invasion Iraq to that which prompted the Russians to convert tanks to APCs, the occupying armies have found it necessary to apply extra armour to existing APCs and IFVs, which adds to the overall size and weight.
[edit] As support for armored formations
It has been discovered repeatedly that armored formations are much less effective without the support of infantrymen; the pre-WWII notion of "tank fleets" has not proved to be sound. Though many nations' armored formations included an organic mechanized infantry component at the start of World War II, the proportion of mechanized infantry in such combined arms formations was increased by most armies as the war progressed.
The lesson was re-learned, first by the Pakistan Army in the 1965 War with India, where the nation fielded two different type of armoured divisions, one which was almost pure armour (the 1st) while the other was more balanced (the 6th), the latter showed itself to be far more combat capable than the former. The Israeli Defense Force in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, had a doctrine that relied primarily on tanks, paratroopers, and aircraft proved inadequate. As a makeshift remedy, paratroopers were provided with motorized transport and used as mechanized infantry in coordination with the armor; after the war the IDF reorganized its armored formations on the basis of the lesson learned.
The doctrine is now universal in nations capable of supporting armored formations. Recently the United States Army has fielded both armored divisions and "heavy" infantry divisions; the organization of the two types was almost identical, except that the ratio of armored battalions to mechanized infantry battalions is slightly higher in the armored divisions and slightly lower in the heavy infantry divisions. In the Pakistan Army, all infantry divisions except mountain formations have an integral armoured regiment (and sometimes more) while nominally "infantry" divisions operating in conjunction with Armoured Divisions usually are completely mechanized and have a significant armour component.
