Armored Units Call Timeout for Rest, Repairs : Military: Preparations taper off amid hints that a ground offensive is not imminent.

Once-urgent preparations for ground combat have slowed markedly as commanders advised at the outset of war to prepare for battle within a week now anticipate more time for training.

The marked transformation in the desert in the last few days coincides with unmistakable hints from the White House and the Pentagon that a U.S. ground offensive is not imminent.

In an indication of the shift, commanders here on Monday ordered a two-day halt to most operations across an entire Army division to give soldiers time to bathe, repair their vehicles and rest.

At the same time, Army officers who only late last week indicated that preparation time was limited on Monday outlined ambitious plans for a series of rehearsals that could include maneuvers by a full brigade. A new delivery of training ammunition was expected, and engineers were to begin construction of obstacles to be used in prewar drills.

The news of delay clearly came as welcome news to Army officers in this heavy armored division, one of the last U.S. units to be deployed to Saudi Arabia.

“It doesn’t look like we’re moving any time soon,” another officer said Monday night.

As the slowdown on the ground began, however, officials said the Army’s VII Corps joined in the bombardment of Iraq with an artillery weapon never before used in battle, using an advanced tactical missile system (ATACMS) rocket early Monday to strike at a target well across the border.

The officers said the missile, which has a range of more than 75 miles, had been credited with a “target hit.” But they declined for security reasons to provide further information about the Iraqi site.

The highly accurate TACMS missile, fired from a multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS) artillery battery, is designed to explode above the ground, spraying hundreds of grenade-like bomblets over an area larger than a football field.

The missile was expected to be used again against key Iraqi strategic targets. Officerssaid the unveiling of the weapon could signal the beginning of a new phase in the American attack as the Air Force begins to shift its sights to Iraqi troop concentrations and the long-range rockets are used to reinforce the attacks on targets near the border.

The sudden flash of the U.S. rocket launch just after 2 a.m. Monday caught American soldiers in an assembly area by surprise. Their sense of war until then had consisted of the roar of American jets heading northward in the night, and occasional distant flashes as bomb blasts were reflected in the sky.

Lt. Tom Doyle, who watched the missile streak across the sky from outside his post at a brigade headquarters, said that his first thought was that American forces were coming under Scud missile attack. An anxious five minutes later, Doyle finally confirmed by radio that the rocket was a “friendly.”

The last tanks and armored personnel carriers from the German-based armored division rolled into place last weekend, and early desert maneuvers by units more at home in the meadows and forests of Europe have illustrated a need for more deliberate preparation, officers said.

“This is the first time we’ve ever done this,” acknowledged Lt. Col. Michael Leahy late last week as his battalion of M-109 155-millimeter howitzers rumbled at half-speed across the sand in a battle formation based on unfamiliar desert tactics.

“This is a whole new world for them,” Leahy said, “and it’s going to take time to sort it out.”

At the same time, ground forces gathered in an assembly area here continue to feel the pinch of a still immature logistics systems, with certain essential supplies, including bottled water, periodically running short.

The German-based U.S. Army units here are still struggling to adjust to the sheer scope of a desert offensive, which would require combat forces to operate in at least brigade-sized units.

In the limited training areas of southern Germany, the forces have room to operate only as battalions, and in a trial-run last weekend, one brigade found nighttime maneuvers to be a considerable challenge.

“We thought it would be like turning a battleship,” said Col. James Riley, commander of the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, which is attached to the 1st Armored division. “It’s more like turning a fleet of battleships.”

This article was reviewed by military censors.