This video is sponsored by World of Warships. The Belgian Army is a curious case. Because
while it has very Instagrammable infantry decked out in FN swag, it also has a reputation
for being understrength and making controversial procurement and divestment decisions.
But it’s now carving out a new niche: supplementing the French Army via
tactical and procurement integration. This video is going to cover the
organization of Belgian medium infantry from squad to battalion,
and their future Frenchification. At the basic level of Belgium’s
heavier infantry is the Piranha IIIC armored personnel carrier. This is
part of a wheeled 8x8 family that Belgium introduced in 2008 to replace
the Leopard 1, M113, and AIFV. The Belgians call the troop-carrying variant the
Piranha Fusilier, armed with an M2HB .50 caliber heavy MG on an ARROWS remote weapon station.
It’s crewed by the assistant vehicle commander, driver, and weapon system operator.
The dismounted section consists of 7 soldiers. The section comes under
the overall command of a Sergeant, with two three-man Teams. Team A has the
Second-in-Command, a Grenadier, and a light MG, while Team B has a Marksman in lieu of the
2IC. Although both are equipped the same. On the dismount the section generally maneuvers
as two parts with the section commander moving between them. However, depending on the situation,
like if the Piranha has been left at a hide sight, the vehicle commander can dismount and join
the section, making two 4-man teams. In other situations, like if the Piranha is occupying
an observation post physically separated from the section, the commander can dismount
to provide local security to the APC. Kind of like what destroyers do for
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7 Days of Premium Account time, and a ship! But back to the Belgians. Most are armed with the FN SCAR-L, Belgium being
the home of its manufacturer Fabrique Nationale. The Marksman and Deputy have Trijicon ACOG optics
for theirs while most other section members get unmagnified Aimpoints. The Grenadiers also have
an FN40 grenade launcher, while the Light MGs get Minimi Mk 3s. In the purest display of excess
if there ever was one, everyone also gets an FN five-seven pistol, and there are roughly
two M72 light anti-tank weapons per section. Three sections together make up the
core of a Fusilier Platoon. In addition, there is a support section who rides in the
Platoon Commander’s Piranha. It’s a 5-man unit that runs a weapons locker concept, able
to bring up different weapons teams depending on the situation. For example, it can provide one
tripod mounted .50 caliber MG, or one 60mm mortar, or a mix of 2 Minimi 7.62 MGs, 2 SCAR-H
DMRs, and 2 RGW-90 MATADOR anti-tank weapons. Based on my conversations with Belgian soldiers, the loaders in a two-man
team will carry a MATADOR. This fourth Piranha will also carry the Platoon
Commander, an Aidman, Radio Operator, Driver, and weapon system operator. The Deputy Platoon
Commander, nominally a 1st Sergeant but often a Sergeant, rides in 3rd section’s vehicle.
Typically, the Platoon Commander dismounts with the platoon while the Deputy stays mounted
to control the vehicles. So 3rd Section also lacks an assistant vehicle commander, because there is
no need for another person to take over command. Three Fusilier Platoons are the close
combat elements of the Fusilier Company, in addition to the headquarters. I don’t have
exact figures of all the vehicles in the HQ, but it has at least two Piranha
command vehicles in combat. Additionally, in its combat configuration, it’ll have attachments. The Belgians call their
Company Team’s Combined Arms Tactical Subgroups, which is just English for the French
term sous-groupement tactique interarmes. I’m told that the company will usually be
reinforced by 1 Piranha recovery vehicle, 2 ambulances and 3 engineer vehicles from an engineer platoon. This is
not inclusive of logistics. Further, standard practice is to trade one
of the Fusilier Platoons for a Direct Fire Platoon from the Battalion’s Support
Company. These platoons consist of two DF90 assault guns (Piranhas with
a Cockerill 90mm turret) and two DF30 infantry fighting vehicles with Elbit
30mm and 7.62 remote weapons stations. Although some sources list them as recon
vehicles, their true role is as direct fire support for infantry. While the DF90 does
have an APFSDS round, it hasn’t been used since 2019 to reduce barrel wear and maintenance
load, and it was limited to engaging light or medium armored vehicles. The DF90’s real
utility lies in its anti-structure HESH round. The DF30 also carries 3 passengers, which is
used to deploy Spike anti-tank guided missile teams with a range of 4 kilometers. This is the
infantry battalion’s actual anti-tank capability. This company team setup can also work in reverse,
if Belgium is generating a Direct Fire Company. For example, during Exercise RAMPANT Lion in 2014, Belgium formed an infantry battalion task
force with the Netherlands. A Company was a Dutch airmobile company mounted on Bushmasters. B
Company was a Belgian infantry company mounted on Dingos. C Company was a Dutch mechanized
unit mounted on CV90s. And D Company was a Belgian Direct Fire Company Team, with two
Direct Fire Platoons and 1 Fusilier Platoon. But back to the pure structures, Belgium has 5 conventional infantry and 3 special
operations battalions. These are split roughly equally between French-speaking
Wallonia and Dutch-speaking Flanders. In Wallonia, the Ardennes Chasseur
Battalion, 1st/3rd Lancers Battalion, and 12th/13th Line Battalion are
French-speaking. While in Flanders, the Bevrijding/5th Line Battalion and
Carabineers/Grenadiers Battalion are Dutch-speaking. Three are equipped with Piranha
APCs, while two ride Dingo infantry mobility vehicles. These form the core of the Motorized
Brigade—Belgium’s conventional ground army. Generally speaking, and this does vary, Piranha battalions have a staff and
service company, two Fusilier Companies, and a Direct Fire Company. Some battalions
also have an operational reserve company. However, the 1st/3rd Lancers are a
little different because they carry cavalry traditions, so they have
squadrons rather than companies. But these Direct Fire Companies are to be
reorganized along the lines of a French Support Company, absorbing some elements currently in the
HQ company. This will look like a recon platoon, Raven unmanned aircraft team, sniper detachment,
and probably some weapons teams as well. But, all 5 of these battalions are to be
reorganized under the Motorized Capability initiative, which is linked to the French Scorpion
program. The Dingos and Piranhas will be replaced by over 400 French Griffon APCs, while the
Direct Fire variants will be replaced with 60 Jaguar armored recon vehicles. The Jaguar
is replacing the AMX-10RC in French service. While the Piranha DF90 was basically
meant to be a financially economical replacement for the Leopard 1, it in
practice has little anti-tank capability because its APFSDS round basically
breaks guns. But even if it didn’t, the 90mm would be inferior in that role to
not only contemporary main battle tanks, like the Leopard 2 which comparable European
armies have operated for decades, but also to the Leopard 1s it replaced. The direct fire units do
have an anti-tank capability that can destroy all known tanks, but these are dismounted ATGM
teams, and are thus defensive in nature. You can make the argument that 90mm in general
is geared towards the infantry support role. But Belgium has international commitments that involve
deterring countries that have main battle tanks, and they have no MBT capability of
their own to afford niche vehicles. As a peak demonstration of the direct fire
platform’s short but troubled history, the Belgians actually almost immediately
cut down their DF90 order significantly and tried to sell off the 18 vehicles
they had already received by 2008, but that failed. So they’ve been left
with sort of a zombie platform ever since, which when measured in platoons is
still only in the single digits. The vibe I’m getting is that the DF30 is
probably the more viable platform. The DF30’s 30mm autocannon is sufficient for a majority
of infantry fire support roles. So replacing both with the Jaguar, which has a 40mm autocannon
and on-board ATGMs, seems fairly logical assuming tanks are out of the question. Ironically
just by the Jaguar having mounted ATGMs it is already a more capable anti-tank vehicle
than what the Belgians currently field. [CORRECTION See Below] And it’s a reconnaissance vehicle. The Belgians plan
on at least one squadron from the 1/3 Lanciers with their future Jaguars to be in their joint
recon and surveillance battalion with Luxembourg. Belgium’s STAR plan, published in May 2022,
lays out a transformation of the current maneuver battalions into 4 Griffon-mounted
infantry battalions and 2 Jaguar-mounted cavalry battalions by 2030. The 1st/3rd
Lancers will convert from infantry to cavalry, and a second battalion, probably a
Dutch-speaking unit like the 2nd/4th Lancers, will also be reactivated. So this is
actually an expansion of 1 battalion. The implication is Belgian battalions
will go to a more French-style structure, where infantry and direct fire recon are in
separate regiments. Note that in French service, the light cavalry regiments provide both
offensive reconnaissance and direct-fire support capabilities to the infantry. This
is a separate development from Belgium’s high level recon, intelligence
and surveillance battalion, which will ideally have its Pandurs replaced by
the winner of France’s VBAE procurement by 2030. The Belgians will also be fielding two
self-propelled mortar batteries, one per language, equipped with the MEPAC, a French semi-automatic
120mm mortar mounted on the Griffon. With two platoons per battery, each platoon with
directly support each infantry battalion. Meanwhile at the brigade-level, a battalion’s
worth of France’s Caesar 155mm howitzers will fill a long-range fires gap that’s existed since
they canned the M109. They were initially going to order 9, but as of June 2022 they stated
intent to order another 19 eventually, for a total of 28. Although at this point,
I believe only the initial order of 9 has actually been funded, while the rest are
just intended to be ordered after 2027. These capabilities combined will upgrade Belgium’s
current low capability Artillery Battalion, which only has a single 8-tube 105mm howitzer
battery and one 120mm mortar battery with 4 to 5 platoons of 2 to 4 mortars each for
direct support of infantry battalions. The Artillery Battalion’s Mistral air
defense battery that was disbanded in 2017 will also be reactivated by 2030 with an
additional counter-UAS capability. Note that the Belgian Land Component hasn’t had any air
defense systems since the Mistral’s divestment. Belgium’s tactical infrastructure and defense
procurement will thus be heavily integrated with the French. A stated benefit of the
partnership is the seamless deployment of a Belgian company within a French battalion task
force, as it recently did to Romania. In fact, the Belgian Motorized Brigade is the sister
unit to the French 7th Armored Brigade. Their idea is to have enough forces to deploy
a combined arms battle group at all times, or deploy one whole brigade within 30 days
but less sustainably. However, this may be subject to change and the first battalion won’t be
operational with its new French APCs until 2026. Make sure to check out World of Warships
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