Thoughts on Force Future
Abstract
With the diminishing threat in Europe, the proposed budget slashes, and the apparent race to redesign the force structure of the Army, the risk of making shortsighted and wasteful mistakes is increased significantly. This study is designed to present ideas that will provide one solution to the structure dilemma, and hopefully open minds and cause creative thinking in the force development community. The contingency corps has always been at the heart of U. S. crisis response. The fact that divisions are too heavy and cumbersome to lift and since the Army response to regional crises has historically been with brigades, a corps/brigade structure is recommended. Couple the contingency corps with type-mixed brigades put together specifically for regional employment, and a solution is regionally aimed crisis response forces. The developing world, it would appear, holds the future threat. The complexity of regional, 'lesser developed' future enemies should cause concern. By matching contingency response forces to areas that hold vital U.S. interests, several advantages are gained. The family of plans maintained by each CINC can be permanently matched to the corps that will execute them. Further, training for this execution can be accomplished with fewer distractions than in the past. Also, the three corps proposed in this paper facilitate a drawdown to force levels predicted and give planners some very interesting basing options.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 31, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA222567
Entities
People
- John R. Reitzell
Organizations
- United States Army War College