Enabling Officer Accession Cuts While Limiting Laterals
Abstract
The Navy officer personnel system includes the option for officers to transfer from one community to another during the course of a career. These lateral transfers often flow from the unrestricted line (URL) to the restricted line (RL) and some selected staff communities within the first 5 or 6 years of service. The two types of lateral transfers are training attrites and warfare-qualified officers. Training attrites fail to meet qualification standards within a warfare community and must either transfer to another community or leave the Navy. Warfare-qualified officers can remain in their URL communities, but the Navy allows some to transfer. Some fully qualified officers are allowed to lateral transfer to provide some RL/Staff officers with broader experience in dealing with warfare officers. The focus of this study is on these warfare-qualified lateral transfers. On one hand, to accommodate the flow of lateral transfers, the URL communities may access and train more officers than necessary to meet their own requirements. On the other hand, anticipating lateral transfers from the URL, the RL and selected staff communities may underaccess to their true requirement. This approach results in excess junior officers in training in some URL communities, and these excesses reduce the quality of training and overall readiness. In addition, this approach may increase the total number of officers in the Navy and thereby increase personnel costs. In the current fiscal environment, reducing personnel costs may be particularly important because the Navy needs money to recapitalize the fleet.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA596765
Entities
People
- Albert B. Monroe Iv
- Donald J. Cymrot
Organizations
- Center for Naval Analyses