Brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements.
Brigades may also be specialized and comprise battalions of a single branch, for example cavalry, mechanized, armored, artillery, air defence, aviation, engineers, signals or logistic.
The Soviet Union as well as its forerunners and successors have mostly used "regiment" instead of brigade, and this was common in much of Europe until after World War II.
The headquarters has a nucleus of staff officers and support (clerks, assistants and drivers) that can vary in size depending on the type of brigade.
[2] The word is first attested in England in the 17th century as a term for a larger military unit than the squadron or regiment.
Previously each regiment, battalion, cavalry squadron, or artillery battery operated somewhat independently, with its own field officer (i.e., colonel, lieutenant colonel, or major) or battery commander (usually a captain) reporting directly to the field force or "army" commander.
The invention of the brigade overcame the lack of coordination inherent in the traditional army structure consisting of independent regiments of infantry and units of supporting arms (viz., cavalry and artillery) acting separately under their individual commanding officers.
In the Australian Army, the brigade has always been the smallest tactical formation, since regiments are either administrative groupings of battalions (in the infantry) or battalion-sized units (in the cavalry).
These CMBGs each comprise Co-located with each CMBG is a field ambulance, a tactical helicopter squadron, and a military police platoon.
[5] Brigades in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) are combined arms and are similar to divisions.
The fairly large size of the combat ready support contingent is also intended to complement the Heimevernet (translates as "Home Defense") which is a large reserve infantry force, as well as act in a support capacity for an international cooperation force (e.g. NATO) in case of an invasion.
Independent armoured and infantry brigades are capable of extended operations without necessarily being reliant on a higher HQ for short-term logistic or intimate support.
Prior to major restructures of the People's Liberation Army Ground Force (PLAGF), forces were designed around the division as the basic operational unit in a similar fashion to Soviet divisions, from which much of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is designed.
The Russian Federation followed suit reorganizing their forces and doctrine to switch from division-centric warfare to the use of battalion tactical groups (BTGs).
Structured very similarly to U.S. Army BCTs, the PLAGF combined arms brigade places maneuver, artillery, air defense, reconnaissance, engineer and protection, and logistics and sustainment under a single brigade-level command.
The PLAGF distinguishes three distinct types of combined arms brigades: light (motorized), medium (mechanized), and heavy (armoured).
A combined arms brigade typically comprises the following organic units wherein the maneuver battalions vary between motorized, mechanized, or armoured depending on the type of CA-BDE.
An NRA Brigade, 旅 (lǚ), was a military formation of the Chinese Republic's National Revolutionary Army.
This was because, unlike infantry battalions and cavalry regiments, which were organic, artillery units consisted of individually numbered batteries that were "brigaded" together.
In the United States Army, a brigade is smaller than a division and roughly equal to or a little larger than a regiment.
During the American Civil War infantry brigades contained two to five regiments with the idea being to maintain a unit with a strength of 2,000 soldiers[10] and were usually commanded by a brigadier general or a senior colonel.
The MEB is a mid-level marine air-ground task force (MAGTF) essentially forming a "demi-division".
[citation needed] The MEB organizational structure consists of a minimum of three regimental-equivalent-sized units and a command element (a regimental combat team, a composite marine aircraft group, a marine logistics regiment, and a MEB headquarters group).
An example of a MEB is Task Force Tarawa (2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade) during the Operation Iraqi Freedom campaign.
