THE RISE AND FALL OF THE PENTOMIC ARMY
R.F.M. WILLIAMSNOVEMBER 25, 2022
COMMENTARY Nuclear_Artillery
Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev failed to reach an agreement on the elimination of nuclear weapons while in power, but both men agreed in 1985 “that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” These words were not always widely accepted and, for decades, the United States and the Soviet Union rehearsed fighting and winning a nuclear war. In one such scenario from early in the Cold War, U.S. Army units would be asked to use nuclear weapons on the battlefield to offset perceived conventional disadvantages and win a nuclear war before it escalated to the use of long-range missiles.
Developing this doctrine was left up to the U.S. Army, but the service was left without a clear role for nuclear weapons at the dawn of the atomic age. During the 1950s, the Army developed methods to fight a “limited atomic war” that was to occur without an exchange of long-range nuclear missiles at each other’s populations. This time in Army history is referred to as the “Pentomic Era,” in reference to five-sided pentagonal division structure implemented during this period known as the Pentomic Division, which was in effect from 1956 to 1962.
The lessons from the Pentomic Era are many, but Army leaders quickly understood that a reliance on nuclear weapons was disadvantageous — a truism that has held true ever since. The Pentomic Division was a lighter division concept that included five subordinate battle groups of five companies each as opposed to the three-sided structure of World War II and Korea. However, leaders quickly realized this was too “light” for conventional combat and also lacked the proper command and control to effectively use nuclear weapons when dispersed. After four years of experiments, the Pentomic Division was disbanded.
https://warontherocks.com/2022/11/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-pentomic-army/?singlepage=1
