Engineering Units: So, the need for bridging (for example) is moot, Grav Mobile. The need for Wreckers? I think that some sort of grav module or grav pod would work just as well or better. EOD? That makes sense. Fortification - sure, still needed. General construction, still needed. But how much of this can be done via robot and expert system? This starts to look like an ideal thing to be an organic element at the company HQ level on up - or a split-out Battalion element like the Medical teams, with an additional unit at the regimental HQ level.
Thoughts?
D.
Combat Engineering, here's my thoughts:
1. Yes "bridging" disappears for a grav vehicle formation, but those are the big vehicle bridges. One of the roles of the Engineers in the real world Irish Army Infantry battalions and brigades is to deploy the Infantry Assault Bridge. It weighs 460kg and takes just 6 minutes to assemble. Eighteen combat engineers carry it into position and deploy it. With the use of a pontoon it can bridge water gaps 40m wide and dry gaps 30m wide without. The point here is without grav belts or in situations where your grav vehicle can't drop you directly on an objective you still may need to "build a bridge and get over it". So the bridge described is probably about TL8 at most, at higher TLs you could print such a bridge or make one from quick hardening foam. Either way your engineers might retain the basic skill of building bridges and crossing gaps.
2. Wreckers, rescue and recovery. Having a grav vehicle on hand that can lift your biggest or most massive combat vehicle and carry it as a slung load is a good idea. After all it could also be used to carry cargo, pre fabricated strong-points, building materials and any number of other things that need brute power. Where you place such a vehicle might be up for question, is it an engineers function to retrieve wrecked vehicles or is this a maintenance function, or maybe its a logistics and supply function if wrecked vehicles require 3rd line maintenance.
3. EOD is still very necessary. The types of route and the forms of mines and IEDs will be different. You might be clearing landing zones or checking likely sites for weapons emplacements. The "mines" might be smart and might consist of autonomous or remote controlled weapons systems that fire missiles at your vehicles or troops. Search is a major component of EOD, you have to look for signs, identify potential devices and then call forward the best methods for disposal or neutralization. So theres definitely still a role for Engineers in EOD, but even today all branches are upskilling in this area.
Signals will have a role in detecting and jamming the smart and controlled weapons that EOD deals with. Active protection on vehicles will also be a major component in neutralizing mines and booby trap devices. I can imagine your better drones will also have the ability to recognize the signs of a mine or IED emplacement and flag them for EOD to look at.
EOD also has a huge role to play in peacekeeping and peace building by clearing dangerous munitions. Base security should also have EOD involvement, checking and clearing the perimeter and patrol routes around bases where hostile forces are known to operate.
You could combine the EOD role in units with the combat demolition role as both deal with the same explosive handling skills.
4. Fortification. Everybody should have a shovel. Digging in should always be one of the first things a soldier does. Actually I quite like the image of a soldier in battledress emerging from a shell scrape that just popped into my head.
At battalion level your engineer or pioneer units should be able to do things like tree blow downs, mouse holing walls, they should probably also have tools capable of digging trenches like a back-hoe, chainsaws or cutting devices capable of cutting wood or masonry. Stocks of sandbags or the future version of them (maybe armour in a can spray) should be held at this level.
At higher levels you can store prefabricated field fortifications. Sections of ballistically armoured wall or panel that can be used to construct field fortifications. Prefab pillboxes flown forward as an underslung load of your gravtank and dropped in a hole dug by your engineers or maybe remote weapons systems instead of the manned pillbox.
At still higher levels you can have some stocks of construction materials and dedicated construction units, but here's an idea to play with. If you have an expeditionary force, either going to another planet or just another continent one of the things you should do is locate the enemy's stocks of strategically valuable material like construction materials and equipment (and fuel and spares), then you only have to bring a minimal amount with you. However you do have to secure these materials from the enemy and prevent him from destroying them, and you still have to bring your skilled crafts people or construction robots with you.
5. Water. In my country the Engineers are responsible for providing drinking water supplies. The lowest echelon this happens at is in the Engineer Company organic to the Brigade. Humans and other sophonts will still need drinking water, but when your army becomes fusion or fusion+ powered every vehicle and piece of equipment will also need water for fuel (you can get both hydrogen for fuel and oxygen for breathing from water too). I'd include a water gathering and refining unit somewhere around Regimental or Brigade level to make them somewhat autonomous for this resource. POL or petrol/oil/lubricants is one of the biggest logistics constraints on today's mechanized forces, after fusion comes in and perhaps with fuel cell powered armies, hydrogen and water will replace it, happily on a lot of planets you can extract water fairly easily from the ground, the seas or even the air.
In conclusion, combat engineering is something company commanders should have quick access to, so having a small pool of skilled combat engineers at battalion level is a good idea. They can always direct ordinary soldiers to assist them in carrying out tasks.
They in turn should be able to call down heavier plant and machinery from Regiment or Brigade pools. Heavy construction is a long term activity and investment so I'd make it a Corps and Army resource.
For EOD its everybody's task to spot and the specialists task to dispose, but the skills of EOD are common to a number of basic combat engineering tasks.
You can give a small unit of Engineers a big toolbox to work out of and accomplish many tasks.
