I was browsing through the JSF battalions in the single-player campaign and noticed that the 8th assault's riflemen only have a "Defense 1" upgrade. I checked every other battalion except the 23nd mechanized and 35th airborne and they had the riflemen "Defense 2" upgrade. So why does the 8th only have one HP upgrade for its riflemen?

No one? Do they get the Defense 2 upgrade in ToW?

yeah... not sure about the single player but i know Im jsf and i upgraded my riflemen wt defense 2.. you should find it in TOW or there are some upgrades which were 'free' wt the launch of the game.. that might be what your talking about. i think Def2 was one of the unlockable ones

i noticed it too on offline missions, i dont know if its effect is implemented but it only ever shows up on my Barracks every other battle

and that as using an airborne division