Tooth-to-Tail (T3R), the ratio of non-combat troops to combat troops, has been an issue of contention for military and civilian leadership since at least WWI. Doing my best to avoid the tall grass, the trend of T3R has been a reduction in combat troops and an increase in life-support, logistics, and HQ personnel. In WWI the T3R for an Infantry Division was 78.4% Combat troops, 14.4% Logistics, and 7.2% HQ/Administration. The Army’s new Stryker Brigades have a T3R of 52% Combat, 30% Logistics, and 18% HQ/Admin. Even more striking are the numbers for Army Forces in Iraq (2005): 40% Combat, 36% Logistics, 24% HQ. If you add civilian contractors to the mix, the share of combat troops drops to only 28%.
My own observations seem to support these numbers and force me to view them in a negative, even destructive, light. MASSIVE FOB’s are equipped with pools, restaurants, and other facilities that seem out of place in a “combat” environment. The support personnel that I saw on these FOB’s seemed (mostly) to be supporting only themselves.
While I understand that the world of SOF does not operate off of the same T3R as the RA folks, I’d be interested to hear everyones thoughts!
(A well done Combat Studies Institute “Occasional Paper” on the subject:
http://www.cgsc.edu/carl/download/cs...grath_op23.pdf)