Josh wrote: ↑Mon Sep 11, 2023 12:02 pm
Are you familiar at all with the state of the officer corps?
The question is a very good one of why MORE generals are needed in peacetime than when at war.
Much more familiar than you apparently. It isn't a question of wartime vs. peacetime. And, in fact, there were 10x more officers serving during WW2 because the Army was much larger.
But the military is no different from any other aspect of life in terms of technology replacing human labor.
The largest combat unit in the Army that operates autonomously is the combat brigade, usually commanded by a one-star or brigadier general. They are usually between 2-5 thousand soldiers. Divisions are made up of multiple combat brigades.
During WW2, a combat brigade would have been staffed with hundreds upon hundreds of support staff. Clerk typists who are typing up every order and notice in triplicate with carbon paper. Switchboard operators manually routing calls throughout the brigade and to other units. Radio operators manually communicating and transcribing orders and messages. Mess hall cooks preparing meals from scratch. Fleets of mechanics keeping vehicles operational, platoons of soldiers handling shipments of equipment by hand, and so forth.
Today most of those jobs are gone. Officers type their own commands on laptops and send them electronically. Computers route all digital communications rather than switchboard and radio operators. Meals are often pre-packaged and dining halls are run by contractors, equipment is more modular and they just ship swap out engines and ship them back to repair factories rather than doing things like overhaul transmissions and engines on the front lines. Equipment is packaged on pallets and shipped in containers rather than trucks loaded by hand. And combat itself is far more mechanized. So a combat brigade that would have had hundreds of soldiers working in support rules to support thousands of infantry solders armed with rifles is now far more mechanized and efficient. Yet it still does the same thing as in WW2 and is still commanded by a brigadier general, but with less troops at risk on the front line.
Does that mean the military has gotten more top heavy in terms of command? Or does that mean increases in productivity and technology mean less soldiers are needed at the front to keep a military unit operational?
It is no different from the efficiencies and mechanization that have changed every other industry from agriculture to logging to mining to steelmaking.
