28 Jan 16. Army Force Commission Calls for Apache Compromise, More Troops in Europe. A US Army force of 980,000 is “minimally sufficient” for maintaining national security and the National Guard should keep some attack helicopters, the National Commission on the Future of the Army declared in a new report.
These are among 63 recommendations the commission made in a major report released Thursday ahead of its congressionally mandated Feb. 1 deadline.
The findings partly work to settle friction between the Army and the Guard and many of the recommendations would ensure the reserve components are used regularly and are equipped appropriately, which can be seen as a win for the Guard.
Eight commissioners appointed by Congress and the White House examined the Army’s structure and policies relating to its size and force mix between the active, Army National Guard and the Army Reserve.
In part, the commission was created to settle a dispute between the active Army and the Guard over a 2013 decision to restructure its aviation fleet. That plan would retire all of the Army’s OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters and take all AH-64 Apaches out of the National Guard and places them in active units. The Guard pushed back, saying it should mirror the active force in capability. If implemented, the Aviation Restructure Initiative would save $12bn.
But the commission’s establishment also presented the rare opportunity to evaluate how the branch — as a “total Army” — should operate in the future and what the roles of each component should be.
The Army plans to take the recommendations very seriously and the commission’s considerations won’t be analyzed in isolation, defense officials told Defense News. All three components will be at the table and all opinions will be included in the analysis, they said.
“I hope that our report will contribute to the dialogue that has to occur between senior leaders in the Army, across the Department of Defense, the administration, the Congress and the nation that will ultimately yield the Army that the nation requires and if our report plays a small part in that, than I will be very thankful,” the commission’s chairman retired Gen. Carter Ham said prior to the report’s release.
Here are some highlights from the report:
End-Strength
A total force of 980,000 is “minimally sufficient” to meet the demands placed on the Army, the commission found. Within that construct, the commission recommends 450,000 troops for the active component, 335,000 for the Guard and 195,000 in the Reserve.
The commission called the all-volunteer Army a “national treasure” and said it should be maintained instead of implementing some form of a conscripted service.
The Army is in the process of reducing 158,000 soldiers across all three components by the end of fiscal year 2018. If sequestration remains, the total Army will have to fall to 920,000. The active component has already lost 80,000 soldiers and is in the process of losing another 40,000. The Guard has lost 8,000 and is shrinking 15,000 more while the Reserve has lost 5,000 and will lose 10,000 more.
After the reductions are complete, the Army will have shrunk 14 percent from the 1.1 million force it had at its height in 2012.
The full-time Army has also already reduced its brigade combat teams from 45 to 32 and plans to take out two more BCTs. The National Guard had 28 BCTs and is now cutting its structure to 26.
Aviation Restructure Initiative
While the Aviation Restructure Initiative planned to take all 192 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters out of the National Guard, the commission is recommending the Army provide four battalions worth of Apaches to the Guard.
“ARI, however, results in a lack of strategic depth, providing for no wartime surge capability in the Army National Guard. It also does not support the Total Force Policy. In response to the ARI, the National Guard Bureau (NGB) formulated an approach to aviation restructuring that would retain six Apache hel