Army National Guard: Combat Brigades' Ability to Be Ready for War in 90 Days Is Uncertain
NSIAD-95-91
Published: Jun 02, 1995. Publicly Released: Jun 02, 1995.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Army National Guard's combat brigades' war-readiness, focusing on whether: (1) the Bold Shift training strategy has enabled combat brigades to meet peacetime training goals; (2) the brigades' advisers are working effectively to improve training readiness; and (3) prospects of having the brigades ready for war within 90 days are likely.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of the Army | The Secretary of the Army, in consultation with National Guard leaders, should direct the Chief of Staff of the Army to reassess premobilization training goals for the enhanced brigades to ensure that they are consistent with readiness requirements and achievable within available training time and resources. |
Closed – Implemented
FORSCOM/ARNG Regulation 350-2, published in March 1995, includes the Enhanced Brigade pre-mobilization training strategy and goals.
|
| Department of the Army | The Secretary of the Army, in consultation with National Guard leaders, should direct the Chief of Staff of the Army to document the training goals in guidance provided to the brigades. |
Closed – Implemented
The goals are documented in FORSCOM/ARNG Regulation 350-2.
|
| Department of the Army | The Secretary of the Army, in consultation with National Guard leaders, should direct the Chief of Staff of the Army to reassess the role of advisers assigned to the enhanced brigades, clearly stipulate whether advisers are to identify and resolve training problems or only assist with training, ensure that advisers have the authority necessary to carry out their role, and document the advisers' role in memoranda of understanding with each state. |
Closed – Implemented
FORSCOM published a resident training detachment memorandum of instruction in May 1995 that clarified training detachment members' role.
|
| Department of the Army | The Secretary of the Army, in consultation with National Guard leaders, should direct the Chief of Staff of the Army to test additional steps to improve the integration of advisers assigned to the enhanced brigades by, for example: (1) providing the advisers with formal authority to review and agree or disagree with unit training plans and readiness reports; (2) including National Guard commanders as intermediate raters for all resident training detachment (RTD) advisers; (3) increasing enhanced brigade personnel authorizations to all RTD active duty officers to augment key brigade positions such as executive officers and training and operations officers; and (4) restructuring or increasing the size of adviser teams assigned to the brigades to provide for additional master gunners or other noncommissioned technical experts. |
Closed – Not Implemented
The Army does not plan to act on this recommendation because it believes that the requirements of the law--Section 1131, Title XI--do not permit deviation from responsibilities of the unit commander assigned to the active component.
|
| Department of the Army | The Secretary of the Army, in consultation with National Guard leaders, should direct the Chief of Staff of the Army to establish and document an Army plan for preparing the enhanced brigades to be ready to deploy to war that: (1) is based on realistic assessments of peacetime training proficiency and the resources available to support postmobilization training; and (2) stipulates the training steps involved, including when brigade-level training against an opposing force is not required. |
Closed – Implemented
The Training and Doctrine Command has developed premobilization training strategies for both mechanized and light infantry forces.
|
| Department of the Army | The Secretary of the Army, in consultation with National Guard leaders, should direct the Chief of Staff of the Army to estimate the timing of the brigades' availability for war based on the Army's plan. |
Closed – Implemented
All of the enhancements for the combat brigades are scheduled to be in place by FY 1999. At that time, the Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan will apportion the Enhanced Brigades to the warfighting CINCS and provide them with anticipated deployment times.
|
| Department of the Army | The Secretary of the Army, in consultation with National Guard leaders, should direct the Chief of Staff of the Army to establish a training performance measurement system to provide: (1) objective measures of the enhanced brigade's peacetime training proficiency; (2) centralized oversight information about the status of training relative to those measures; and (3) criteria for commanders to follow when estimating postmobilization training time requirements. |
Closed – Implemented
The Army published the "Army Pamphlet on Operations Readiness", which provides unit commanders with guidance on the actual number of days required to perform specific events. The pamphlet also provides specific, objective measures for determining unit readiness.
|
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Topics
Armed forces reserve trainingArmy reservistsCombat readinessDefense capabilitiesInteragency relationsMilitary reserve personnelMobilizationNational GuardTraining utilizationMilitary forces