LTC Dan Krueger
Throughout the latter stages of 2024 and early 2025, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment had a unique opportunity to train and fight an opposing force (OPFOR) alongside the Booker Test Detachment, an armor company of tanks known as Charlie Company, 73rd Armor Regiment. Though the M10 Booker program was ultimately canceled, the training and testing period of over six months enabled a rare, sustained relationship between a light infantry battalion and an armored force. While it is common to have a similar task organization at a combat training center (one that incorporates non-organic armored platforms), we found that integration did not come easily. Indeed, such partnerships must be cultivated and sustained for effective combined arms maneuver.
This article briefly highlights 10 areas worthy of leaders’ attention moving forward.
Increased protection and speed led to opportunity when leveraged appropriately. We continually referred to the Booker by its original name “mobile protected firepower”: these three important words gave the necessary symbiotic relationship between any mounted and dismounted force. The “mobility” came in the form of a fast-moving asset that could gain an advantageous position or exploit opportunity in a fraction of the time of our light Infantrymen. While our battalion typically used the M10 in a support role, we experimented with using it to quickly assault objectives and open routes. Moreover, we found that we could rapidly reinforce areas where our forces were more or less successful in making gains against a free-thinking OPFOR.
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