Specialized Reserve Components Teams Can Serve Joint Global Commitments

摘要

The United States is currently deploying throughout the world at a rate approximately three times that of the Cold War. These deployments stretch thin an Army structured and trained for two near simultaneous Major Theaters of War. Small Scale Contingencies (SSC) will remain a fact of life for the U.S. armed forces. SSC deployment requirements will call for the ability to influence the world climate through the use of rapidly deployed Joint Task Forces (JTF). These JTFs must react to specific world problems with the ability to morph missions as situational changes occur. Joint Forces Command is looking at a possible cellular JTF Headquarters for centralized command and control of future national missions. This headquarters would require support or attachment of 'plugs', force structure designated and trained in a specific capability, to manage each mission. Some of these plugs could be located in the U.S. rather than the mission theater and will most likely consist of members, cells, and teams from all branches of the armed forces. In the late 199Os, when the Army considered designs for Force XXI Corps Headquarters with JTF capability, the size of the headquarters increased considerably. With Current constraints in force structure the increase required to build this capability into the corps headquarters is a huge limitation. The Force XXI Corps Headquarters redesign effort was even postponed as efforts shifted to the transformation efforts. The Army National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserve are good sources for the trained cells and teams to reduce the burden on the active Army and still supply the capabilities required in the mission theater.