Recently, the US Army Aviation Center of Excellence revealed to the outside world that the Army aviation force is undergoing structural adjustment. This agency is mainly responsible for the development and planning of future battlefield aviation forces, and has participated in the formulation of core concepts such as "Army 2030" and "Army 2040". The information disclosed this time means that the transformation of the US Army aviation brigade will enter a substantive stage.

At present, the US Army has 12 combat aviation brigades with basically the same force structure, each of which is equipped with "Apache", "Black Hawk" armed helicopters of the same size, "Chinook" transport helicopters, etc. The US Army will restructure the strength structure of the combat aviation brigade and form 8 heavy combat aviation brigades and 4 light combat aviation brigades. The former is mainly responsible for ground attack and strategic projection, while the latter is mainly responsible for rapid mobility, support and penetration.

According to the nature of the mission, the eight heavy combat aviation brigades can be divided into four types. Among them, the combat aviation brigades of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Infantry Divisions are "joint forced intervention assault" forces, with "Apache" armed helicopters as the main combat equipment. The 12th and 16th combat aviation brigades mainly perform theater support and fire strike tasks, and their staffing is basically the same as the existing combat aviation brigades. The combat aviation brigade of the 1st Armored Division is a "heavy division equipped with aviation force", mainly equipped with "Chinook" transport helicopters, and equipped with a certain number of armed helicopters to carry out fire cover tasks. The combat aviation brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division is a "joint forced intervention airborne delivery" force, which is mainly responsible for providing the joint forces with the army motorized multi domain task force, equipped with "Black Hawk" armed helicopters and "Chinook" transport helicopters.

The four light combat aviation brigades are divided into two main categories. The combat aviation brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, the combat aviation brigade of the 25th Infantry Division and the combat aviation brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division are "equipped with aviation forces for light divisions". The above three brigades will form joint aviation teams to carry out rapid deployment and mobile combat tasks according to the needs of war. The combat aviation brigade of the 101st Airborne Division is used as a penetration force, equipped with "Black Hawk" armed helicopters and "Chinook" transport helicopters. In the future, the US military will expand the airborne battalion in the brigade and install at least 32 Chinook transport helicopters.

According to the report, while adjusting the functional orientation of the combat aviation brigade, the US Army also optimized the military structure. After the adjustment and distribution of equipment, each battalion will be reduced by 100 to 150 personnel. In the future US Army architecture, the combat aviation brigade will become an important part of the multi domain combat force.

According to foreign media, the US Army kicked off the reform with the structural adjustment of combat aviation brigade, aiming to "win the advantage of modern land battlefield" in the context of the competitive strategy of big countries. In the future, the US Army will further accelerate the pace of reform and transformation, and relevant trends deserve continued attention. (Liu Cheng)

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