Landpower and the Reserve Components
Abstract
The Army Reserve components -- the U.S. Army Reserve (USAR, established in 1908) and Army National Guard (ARNG, established in 1936) -- have distinguished themselves throughout the Nation's history. The modern history of the Reserve components began with Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird implementing the Total Force policy in 1970. He directed the military departments to consider the Reserve as part of the total force available to meet security needs. Although the resources devoted to the Reserve components have always fluctuated, the last thirty years have seen a focus on readiness and capability. As the active force has been reduced in the post Cold War world, the demands on the Reserve components have increased. This will call for added resources to enable more training, better equipment, and appropriate pay and benefits. It appears that the challenges facing ARNG and USAR will increase. They will occur both at home and abroad and cover the range of military options from the law enforcement and mitigation tasks associated with homeland security and defense, to peacekeeping and stability operations in failed states, to major combat. This article puts these issues for the Army Reserve components into perspective, identifies current ARNG and USAR transformational initiatives, and suggests additional options for dealing with evolving challenges. Tables provide comparisons of active and reserve manpower by service, and comparisons of active and reserve force structure by service (i.e., Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA480253
Entities
People
- John C. Tillson
Organizations
- Institute for Defense Analyses