National Guard Civil Support Teams. A Force Not Ready

摘要

The National Guard Civil Support Teams are not mission capable. The teams are not doctrinally supported, they do not have equipment required meet mission requirements, and they are severely understaffed. The teams were to be certified fully mission capable on 1 January 2000. As of the date of this paper, the teams remain uncertified because the key pieces of equipment, the Unified Command Suite and the Mobile Analytical Laboratory do not currently meet mission requirements. Additionally, the teams were developed with little or no interagency coordination, and thus have little support outside the DoD. The problems are numerous and require considerable effort and funding to alleviate. The teams are useful as a deterrent at the local and state level, but they must be retrained on doctrine with a basis on solid established concepts before they can be a viable deterrent for a WMD attack. The teams stated mission is unreasonable. A complete in depth mission analysis must be conducted before the teams can be certified 'Fully Mission Capable' as mandated by current federal law.