The 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of US Army to become armored brigade in 2017 10112163

Defence & Security News - United States
 
The 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of US Army to become armored brigade in 2017.
The U.S. Army announced Wednesday, November 30, 2016, that it plans to convert the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) into an armored brigade starting next summer. The 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team will add more than 200 armored vehicles as it transitions to the Army's 10th active-duty armored BCT and the 15th in the entire force.
     
The U.S. Army announced Wednesday, November 30, 2016, that it plans to convert the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) into an armored brigade starting next summer. The 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team will add more than 200 armored vehicles as it transitions to the Army's 10th active-duty armored BCT and the 15th in the entire force. Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, conduct an after-action review from an adviser with 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) Feb. 24, 2016. (Photo by Sgt. Nelson Robles)
     
Spartan Brigade is the premier Light Infantry Brigade within the 3d Infantry Division.

Known as the Spartan Brigade, the 2nd IBCT is slated to turn in and receive equipment this summer before it officially converts to an armored BCT in October. The new brigade will kick off training exercises in 2018 and conduct a combat training center rotation the following year, according Col. Brian Ellis, force management division chief with the Army's G-3/5/7.

None of the brigade's units will be moved from Fort Stewart, Georgia, he added, and there will be just a slight reduction in its 4,200-Soldier force as it changes to armored vehicles.
The brigade is set to obtain 87 M1A1 Abrams tanks with situational awareness configuration upgrades and 138 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, along with 18 M109 howitzers.

In 2005 and 2006, the 2nd Brigade served in Iraq, with a temporary task organization that included units from Vermont, Kentucky, Nebraska, Utah, Indiana and Michigan, as well as regular Army units from the 3rd Infantry Division and 101st Airborne Division.