The army is structured in a conventional fashion, akin to that of the British Army before its series of reorganizations, and has not found it necessary to change for the sake of appearing modern. A drawback to the present system is that the span of higher command is too wide to effect continuous control by GHQ in Rawalpindi. There have been proposals create two intermediate HQ to command the corps on the eastern border, but the costs in funding and high-quality manpower would be prohibitive.
Some manpower savings have been effected by reducing the number of logistics and other support personnel, especially in officer's messes. but with the army heavily committed to operations in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan in addition to carrying out normal training, it is unlikely these savings will be translated into an actual reduction in overall strength.
Given the recently arisen imparitives of counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency and continuining dialouge and reduction of tensions on the eastern border, it is assessed that the army's basic organization will not alter, although they will continue to be rotational deployment of formations and units to the west.
Divisions and Brigades
The composition of fighting formations varies according to roles and tasks, with the aim of maintaining a balanced and flexible divisional groupings capable of accepting reinforcements of, for example, a further independent brigade under command for a particular operation. Ongoing mechanization, following resumption of M-113 (variant) production, has resulted in both armoured divisions achieving greater mobility, and the mechanized infantry divisions having appropriate allocations of armour and tracked support, given the delivery of more SP-109s from the US infantry divisions in the two strike corps have re-equipped almost entirely with Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), but will not receive SP artillery in the short term. Brigades are conventionally structured, as far as possible in square formation, and the independent armoured brigades in V Corps (HQ Karachi) are to all intents an armoured division. Force Command Northern Area (FCNA), a mountain division in all but name, is lightly equipped and has no armour. Within combat divisions, logistics brigades have been formed to command support elements. This has resulted in promotion opportunities for officers of the support services that otherwise would not have been available.
Some manpower savings have been effected by reducing the number of logistics and other support personnel, especially in officer's messes. but with the army heavily committed to operations in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan in addition to carrying out normal training, it is unlikely these savings will be translated into an actual reduction in overall strength.
Given the recently arisen imparitives of counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency and continuining dialouge and reduction of tensions on the eastern border, it is assessed that the army's basic organization will not alter, although they will continue to be rotational deployment of formations and units to the west.
Divisions and Brigades
The composition of fighting formations varies according to roles and tasks, with the aim of maintaining a balanced and flexible divisional groupings capable of accepting reinforcements of, for example, a further independent brigade under command for a particular operation. Ongoing mechanization, following resumption of M-113 (variant) production, has resulted in both armoured divisions achieving greater mobility, and the mechanized infantry divisions having appropriate allocations of armour and tracked support, given the delivery of more SP-109s from the US infantry divisions in the two strike corps have re-equipped almost entirely with Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), but will not receive SP artillery in the short term. Brigades are conventionally structured, as far as possible in square formation, and the independent armoured brigades in V Corps (HQ Karachi) are to all intents an armoured division. Force Command Northern Area (FCNA), a mountain division in all but name, is lightly equipped and has no armour. Within combat divisions, logistics brigades have been formed to command support elements. This has resulted in promotion opportunities for officers of the support services that otherwise would not have been available.