Echelons above corps (EAC), in US and NATO practice, refer to higher headquarters, of purpose-built organization, which involve a greater number of troops than would be in an
army corps
Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was formally introduced March 1, 1800, when Napoleon ordered Gener ...
. They may be standing organizations with a regional responsibility, or may be established for a particular operational purpose. While EAC most commonly refer to ground combat forces, they may refer to joint commands. They may also be administrative headquarters with responsibility for preparing combat forces.
While there were a significant number of EAC in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, with increasing power of smaller organizations, it may not be required to have a ground force of the size of:
:*
Field army
A field army (also known as numbered army or simply army) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps. It may be subordinate to an army group. Air army, Air armies are the equivalent formations in air forces, and ...
, made up of two or more
corps
Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was formally introduced March 1, 1800, when Napoleon ordered Gener ...
plus units under the direct control of the army commander
:*
Army group
An army group is a military organization consisting of several field army, field armies, which is self-sufficient for indefinite periods. It is usually responsible for a particular geographic area. An army group is the largest field organizatio ...
, composed of two or more
field armies plus units subordinated to the army group commander
:*
Theater
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...
, composed of all land, sea, and air forces in a geographic area
Even in World War II, while the Western Allies used these terms, they were not universal. A Soviet army was roughly equivalent to a US or
Commonwealth corps
The Commonwealth Corps was the name given to a proposed British Commonwealth army formation, which was scheduled to take part in the planned Allied invasion of Japan during 1945 and 1946. The corps was never formed, however, as the Japanese sur ...
, with a front roughly equivalent to an army group. Japanese armies were also equivalent to US or Commonwealth corps, an area army to a western field army, and a general army to a theater.
Current US concepts of EAC
The US Army divides types of troops into combat arms (infantry, armor, artillery, aviation, special forces), combat support (intelligence, communications, engineer, military police) and
combat service support
The term combat service support (or CSS) is utilized by numerous military organizations throughout the world to describe entities that provide direct and indirect sustainment services to the groups that engage (or are potentially to be engaged) ...
(supply, maintenance, medical, transportation, chaplain, finance and administration).
Combat support
Military police, in the current environment, often are in a combat role. Doctrine is catching up with reality, as in Panama, and most recently in Iraq, with the
Raven 42 patrol led by Staff Sergeant
Timothy Nein and Sergeant
Leigh Ann Hester
Leigh Ann Hester (born January 12, 1982) is a United States Army National Guard soldier. While assigned to the 617th Military Police Company, a Kentucky Army National Guard unit out of Richmond, Kentucky, Hester received the Silver Star for he ...
, where a woman, for the first time, received the
Silver Star
The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against a ...
medal, and qualified for the
Combat Action Badge
The Combat Action Badge (CAB) is a United States military Badges of the United States Army, award given to soldiers of the U.S. Army of any rank and who are not members of an infantry, special forces, or medical MOS, for being "present and active ...
. Raven 42, a unit of the 617th Military Police Company of the Kentucky National Guard, was on a convoy escort mission where combat was reasonable to expect, as opposed to the rear area MP units guarding prisons and POWs.
Combat service support
Thomas J. Newman, a
Quartermaster Corps
Following is a list of quartermaster corps, military units, active and defunct, with logistics duties:
* Egyptian Army Quartermaster Corps - see Structure of the Egyptian Army
* Hellenic Army Quartermaster Corps (''Σώμα Φροντιστών ...
major in 1993, analyzes the roles of combat service support at EAC. It must be remembered that US Army doctrine was in flux as his monograph was being developed, analyzing the lessons learned from
Operation Desert Storm
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...
, but the Army not yet gone to the major restructuring into units of action/brigade combat teams and units of employment.
rom the abstractArmy concepts for supporting operations involving multiple corps were called into question by actions taken during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Non-doctrinal organizations provided support to U.S. forces deployed on these operations, despite the fact that doctrinally correct organizations existed. The monograph examines existing doctrine for support of multi-corps operations, and also doctrine for Army theater command and control architecture. It then summarizes support operations during the Gulf
War Emerging logistics doctrine is then compared with both previous doctrine and with lessons learned in the Gulf. The monograph concludes that existing doctrine for support at echelons above corps requires revision, that-emerging doctrine is on the right track, and that a key requirement will be for the Army to identify a way to test new doctrine in a realistic manner.
Existence of EAC's between US corps and unified commands
Still in use in US forces are
Unified Combatant Commands, roughly equivalent to a
theater
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...
.
Multinational Force Iraq
Multinational may refer to:
* Multinational corporation, a corporate organization operating in multiple countries
* Multinational force, a military body from multiple countries
* Multinational state
A multinational state or a multinational union ...
(MNF-I) is a level of command comparable to a reinforced field army.
References
{{reflist
Military science
Military units and formations by size