By Drew Brooks Military editor (Fay Observer) … Updated
The Army’s old training model isn’t good enough.
A tiered system where units exist in a cycle of readiness, peaking before a planned deployment, isn’t sustainable in the times of shrinking resources and evolving missions.
So the Army is moving to sustained readiness, with all of its units working to be ready to deploy at a moment’s notice.
But for the Army to meet its missions and follow through on possible contingencies, that model needs to apply to more than just the active duty force.
To meet wartime contingency plans on the Korean peninsula, Europe and southwest Asia and to meet the nation’s counterterrorism requirements, the nation needs the whole of its Army.
“If all of those things are executed simultaneously or near simultaneously – it’s going to require all 980,000 that is in the Army, all 980,000 to be ready to go,” said Gen. Robert B. “Abe” Abrams, commanding general of U.S. Army Forces Command.
So on Wednesday, Abrams led a forum focused on one of the new initiatives aimed at harnessing that total force.
Speaking to more than 180 Army leaders, from battalion and brigade commanders to division leaders and state adjutant generals, Abrams said the forum was focused on how the active force, Army Reserves and Army National Guard would work together as part of an Associated Units pilot program announced earlier this year.
He said the two-day forum at Fort Bragg would set the tone for the Army for the next 10 to 15 years.
Reserves, Guard key component of pilot program linking 28 different units | Military | fayobserver.com
Readiness is the Army’s top priority, Abrams said. But that readiness can’t be purely focused in the active component. Of the 980,000 soldiers currently serving, 195,000 belong to the Reserves and 335,000 belong to the Guard.
“We’ve got to increase the readiness of Guard and Reserve forces,” he said.
The associated units program links 28 different units together at division, brigade, battalion and company levels for training and readiness.
Brig. Gen. Randy George, the Army’s director of force management, said the program is part of a continued evolution of the Total Force concept.
It’s all about finding ways to maximize the capabilities and the capacity of the Army, he said.
The program includes one pairing at Fort Bragg, where the Army Reserve’s 824th Quartermaster Company will begin working with the 82nd Airborne Division Sustainment Brigade.
Other pairings will have an infantry battalion at Fort Benning, Georgia, reporting to the Georgia National Guard’s 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, and a Washington National Guard stryker brigade reporting to the 7th Infantry Division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
Speaking as part of the forum, Lt. Gen. Timothy J. Kadavy, director of the Army National Guard, and Maj. Gen. David J. Conboy, deputy commanding general for operations at Army Reserve Command, said their respective components were “all-in” on the program.
Every commander involved in the program is attending this week’s forum.
Reserves, Guard key component of pilot program linking 28 different units | Military | fayobserver.com
The associated units program, officials said, would provide more opportunities for Guard and Reserve units, helping to reverse a trend where those forces were seeing less use with the frequency of missions in Iraq and Afghanistan decreasing.
It would also better integrate the active and reserve components, filling critical gaps in a shrinking Army.
The pilot program is set to run until 2020 and could expand to include other units, according to Conboy, who said engineer, military intelligence and sustainment units would be ripe for participation.
But any discussion of the program must be centered on a single goal, Abrams said. Nothing else is more important.
“This has to increase readiness across the force,” he said. “We have to walk out of here with a clear understanding of the way forward.”
“This is really important for the Army that we get this right,” Abrams added. “That’s why we have made this investment. That’s why we’ve brought all of these leaders across the force to Fort Bragg.”
As part of the associated units program, units will exchange key personnel, adopt the patches of the senior command and participate in more combat training center rotations. Reserve component units will receive additional training days to accomplish their goals.
The relationships, officials said, will be unlike anything the active and reserve components have seen before.
While the associated units will keep their chain of commands, the higher units they are paired with will take responsibility for their training plans and readiness.
“It’s not what we’re used to. This is more about unit of effort instead of unity of command,” Abrams said.
Reserves, Guard key component of pilot program linking 28 different units | Military | fayobserver.com
The program is unlikely to be perfect. Leaders said they fully expect “some bumps along the way.”
“It’s going to be a change,” Kadavy said. “It’s going to take some changes in how we operate.”
Military editor Drew Brooks can be reached at brooksd@fayobserver.com.