the 4th division:
High-Tech Army Division Heads to Iraq
By David McGuire
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Thursday, April 3, 2003; 8:39 AM
When the Army said it would deploy its 4th Infantry Division to the Middle East, media reports called it "elite," "high-tech," "powerful." Military experts have another way to describe it: the deadliest, most technologically advanced armored division on earth.
Originally set to invade Iraq from Turkey in the north, the 4th Infantry Division (mechanized) is scrambling to move its heavy equipment to Kuwait, with the first troops arriving over the past several days. It brings to the conflict a formidable force of 16,000 troops, about 250 Abrams tanks, more than 200 Bradley fighting vehicles and technology that gives them an unprecedented ability to see and move throughout the battlefield.
The 4th "could probably take on the Republican Guard by itself," said David Goure, vice president of the Lexington Institute, an Arlington-based military think tank. "It's the most technologically advanced armored division in the world."
An Army official would not say whether any of the division's units already are engaged in combat or are in Iraq. Once it is there, however, it can use its technology to coordinate maneuvers and fire to deadly effect, said Col. John Antal, chief operations officer of the Army's III Corps, which includes 4th Infantry.
"Precision fire freezes the enemy maneuver. When he tries to move large formations we're able to kill them with precision fire pretty quickly," Antal said. "You place the enemy on the horns of a dilemma. He has to disperse to stay alive, fight us individually, surrender or die."
Goure said that the combination of the 4th's targeting and communications technological superiority makes it as much as four times more lethal than the 3rd Division, which has already successfully engaged enemy forces in Iraq.
Its arsenal includes the M1A2 SEP (Systems Enhancement Package) tank. An improvement over the M1A1 and the standard M1A2, the M1A2 SEP has more powerful gun sights and an independent thermal viewer that allows a tank commander to look in a different direction from his gunner.
"They can fire on the move at 40 to 50 miles per hour and kill with 85 percent accuracy," Goure said.
The 4th Infantry's main claim to technological superiority are cutting-edge tools designed to tell armored unit commanders where they are, where their friends are and where the enemy is.
The Pentagon has spent billions of dollars on technologies designed to improve "situational awareness" after friendly fire claimed the lives of 35 American troops during Desert Storm.
The 4th Infantry tested the Army's Force 21 Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) System, which allows Abrams and Bradley commanders to follow the movement of friends and foes from computer screens inside their vehicles.
While the Army is outfitting all of its armor with that capability, the 4th was the first division to have it, has the most experience with it, and has the greatest percentage of vehicles equipped with the technology, Antal said.
"In warfare, most of your time is spent in trying to tell people what's going on and trying to get them to do what you what you want them to do," he said.
With technology that allows them to see exactly where their comrades are, "forward commanders will be able to spend more time on maneuvering to fight and win the battle," he added.
David McIntyre, deputy director of the Arlington-based ANSER Institute for Homeland Security, said the 4th will have a big advantage with the technology, having tested it extensively during the research and development phase.
"There's been an investment in learning the equipment that hasn't necessarily happened in other units," said McIntyre, who served as an M1 commander patrolling the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.
Antal, a former tank commander, likened traditional armored warfare to a fistfight in a darkened room, in which combatants had to feel around with one hand and deliver blows with the other.
In the 21st century, the room is still dark, but advanced fighting forces like the 4th can see clearly and deliver pinpoint blows with both hands, he said.
While the Army has tested its situational awareness tools extensively, McIntyre said that the results of the 4th's deployment will show whether the Pentagon's money has been well spent.
"They've spent years in the field with this [but] it is the first time that this will go up in combat," he said. "They've got the same problem you have with your home computer. Is it reliable? That's the biggest question of all; you don't know that until you get in the dust storm and somebody shoots at you."
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