text: Cavalry Organizations and
  the Operational Environment
  CAVALRY SQUADRONS
  1-73. Cavalry squadrons conduct reconnaissance and security operations in close contact with enemy forces
  and civilian populations. They maintain contact with the enemy to fight for information while preserving
  their own freedom to maneuver. They shape the battlefield for the commander to allow the BCT to close with
  and destroy the enemy through maneuver and superior firepower at a time and place of the commanders choosing.
  1-74. All ground Cavalry squadrons possess the following capabilities:
  * Fight for information within unit capabilities.
  * Gather information about all categories of threats.
  * Provide all-weather, continuous, accurate, and timely reconnaissance in complex terrain.
  * Rapidly develop the situation.
  * Reduce risk and enhance survivability by providing information that allows the higher
  headquarters commander to avoid contact or to achieve overwhelming combat power.
  * Assist in shaping the area of operations by providing information or directing precision joint fires
  to disrupt the enemy commander’s decision cycle and deny planned or future options.
  * Conduct collaborative and parallel planning that fully integrates with higher and adjacent units
  and results in employment of reconnaissance and security assets to support higher headquarters operations.
  * Reestablish command and control through two distinctly different situations listed below:
   Repel an enemy attack that disrupted command and control.
   Retransmission of information for units or elements out of communication range of the main body.
  1-75. All ground Cavalry squadrons are constrained in that—
  * They require augmentation to perform effective offensive and defensive actions as an economy of
  force role.
  * Wheeled vehicle-equipped squadrons lack direct fire standoff, lethality, and survivability in open
  and rolling terrain and need augmentation when arrayed against enemy armor.
  * Medium-wheeled vehicles have limited cross-country mobility.
  AIR CAVALRY SQUADRON
  1-76. As an element of the combat aviation brigade, the air Cavalry squadron (known as ACS) provides
  accurate and timely information collection, provides reaction time and maneuver space, and destroys, defeats,
  diverts, or disrupts enemy forces to support the combined arms team. Although the ACS is fully capable of
  conducting attacks, the integration of RQ-7B UASs at the troop level makes the ACS the best formation for
  conducting reconnaissance, security, and movement to contact as primary missions, with attack operations
  as a secondary mission.
  ORGANIZATION
  1-77. The ACS consists of a headquarters troop, three air Cavalry troops (known as ACTs) equipped with
  eight AH-64s and four RQ-7B Shadow UASs each, an aviation maintenance troop, and a forward support
  troop. Figure 1-10, page 1-22 provides ACS organizations.
  CAPABILITIES
  1-78. The ACS conducts the following tasks:
  * Zone, route, and area reconnaissance.
  * Reconnaissance in force (when task organized).
  * Screen.
  * Guard and area security (when task organized).
  * Movement to contact.
  * Attack.