Army Force Structure: Future Reserve Roles Shaped by New Strategy, Base Force Mandates, and Gulf War
Abstract
Responding to budgetary pressures and a softening of policies by the Soviet Union, the Army began in 1989 to plan for major force reductions. Continuing improvement in the security environment has led to plans for deeper reductions in both active and reserve forces. In late 1990, the Department of Defense (DOD) adopted its Base Force plan to implement a newly announced US. security strategy focusing on major regional contingencies. The Army plans to have its portion of DOD'S Base Force in place by fiscal year 1995. Army plans call for active forces to be reduced by 31 percent and reserve forces by 27 percent from Cold War levels. Congress has approved proposed reductions in the Army's active forces, but has approved less than half of the proposed reserve force reductions. In Congress' view, the reduced threat to U.S. security should permit a greater reliance on reserves. However, DOD maintains that retaining reserves above requested levels will result in undue costs, reserve units without missions, and an imbalanced force.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1992
- Accession Number
- AD1174358
Entities
People
- Henry L. Jr Hinton
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office