text: Engineer Echelon Perspectives
  The units that make up the theater army engineer force (including Army, joint, and multinational force
  providers) are diverse with technical skills that range from highly specialized to multifunctional and multi-
  sourcing. Operational-level engineer planners are challenged to comprehensively identify current and future
  requirements across the range of organizational skill sets. Typically, operational priorities and substantially
  defined, subordinate requirements are clear and the associated tasks and troop formations are evident. For
  operational planners, the requirements for supporting less substantially defined tactical needs of subordinate
  echelons become increasingly ambiguous. To ensure the adequate resourcing of units to meet these needs,
  planners must consider troop formations and tasks that are evident and that provide for the flexibility to
  mitigate uncertainty.
  Planners use the engineer discipline and its primary relationship to warfighting functions to organize
  and ensure that there is an integrated view of operational requirements. At the theater army echelon, a
  significant focus is placed on general engineering capabilities that must be tailored according to the
  operational requirements linked to the movement and maneuver, sustainment, and protection warfighting
  functions. These requirements include—
  * Construction requirements. Construction requirements typically exceed Army unit capabilities
  and must be analyzed, with consideration given to joint, multinational, contract, and other
  capabilities.
  * Specialized requirements. Specialized requirements may require additional or technical
  information to effectively associate with tasks and troops. FFE or reachback may be employed to
  guide the technical assessment needed. Theater army engineer planners may, through their own
  analysis of the situation, determine the tailored force required by operational priorities and
  substantial subordinate requirements. They will need subordinate echelon input to more precisely
  tailor the force required to meet the tactical engineer requirements.
  Theater level engineer planners typically develop a broad, less-defined understanding of the
  requirements at each lower echelon. Geospatial engineering support, though organic at each echelon down
  to the BCT, may generate requirements for augmentation at the operational or a selected subordinate echelon.
  General engineering support requirements linked to the movement and maneuver, sustainment, and
  protection warfighting functions at each subordinate echelon may be evident and accepted as an operational
  force responsibility or considered in tailoring the subordinate echelon. Similarly, general engineering support
  as augmentation to combat engineering capabilities at lower echelons may be considered but will be less
  clearly defined. Finally, additional combat engineering requirements for each BCT and major tactical element
  are considered. Augmentation is provided in the form of additional combat and general engineering
  capabilities, along with the appropriate engineer and multifunctional headquarters elements. For the
  operational planner, the type and level of augmenting capabilities will likely be ambiguous. To ensure that
  there is a flexible force adequate for comprehensive operational requirements, planners must employ more
  than their own broad understanding of those requirements.
  When available for collaborative planning, subordinate echelon headquarters provide invaluable input
  for their assigned mission requirements and for some operational requirements that may have been
  overlooked by the higher echelon. Subordinate echelon engineer units and the engineer staff supporting corps,
  division, and other headquarters develop an understanding through a more concentrated analysis of the
  situation. The resulting view adds depth to understanding the engineer forces that are required for mission
  support.
  The tailored engineer force supporting the theater army echelon typically includes joint and
  multinational engineer formations. Planners task organize Service capabilities with joint, multinational,
  interagency, and nongovernmental organizations. Operational-level engineer planners consider the joint
  engineer force capabilities and collaborate with joint force providers to effectively align joint capabilities
  with the necessary requirements. Consideration will typically include tactical limitations for joint engineer
  forces. While Navy and Air Force engineer forces include a variety of technical skill sets, they are often
  limited in ground combat capabilities (for example, certain Air Force engineer units possess highly skilled
  electrical, plumbing, and other utilities and construction crafts but are limited in their capability to move to
  and secure a work site). This unit type would be appropriate as a joint resource for requirements within a
  base but not for requirements throughout a less secure operational area.