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Rack FO – Organizing & Equipping the Force
Aisle F — Force Structure
Library: Main Page — Professional Development (A) — Defense Enterprise (E) — Force Structure (F) — Modernization (M) — Personnel (P) — Readiness (R) — Special Enterprises (S) — Resource Management (X) — References (Z)
Force Structure (F): Force Strategy & Planning (FA) — Concepts and Doctrine (FC) — Force Development (FD) — Manning the Force (FM) — Organizing and Equipping the Force (FO) — Force Posture & Stationing (FP) — Roles and Missions (FR)
Disclaimer: The inclusion of resources here is for informational, historical, and research purposes only and is provided as a service for US Army War College faculty, students, and graduates to support their educational and professional requirements. These may include outdated or superseded materials. The inclusion of these materials does not constitute endorsement by the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Army, or Department of Defense.
This rack constitutes the equivalent of rack FM for the establishment and equipping of units. How many brigade combat teams, carrier groups, and such do we need and what will they have? Do we place all the combat and support in fixed modular units or separate them by function to be combined as task forces when needed?
This rack is also where Total Army Analysis resides and other efforts to wargame and analyze force structure options (there may come a time to divide this rack between the organizing and equipping functions).
This shelf contains general resources on roles and missions planning for the defense enterprise.
Faculty Publications:
- None.
Laws, Policies, Memos, and Regulations (sorted by regulation number):
- Army Force Management School, Total Army Analysis (TAA) Short Primer, November 2010.
Strategies and Reports:
- Chamberlain, Sam. Default Operational Representations of Military Organizations, Report #ARL-TR-2172 (Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD: Army Research Laboratory, February 2000).
- Combat Studies Institute, Sixty Years of Reorganizing for Combat: A Historical Trend Analysis, Report #14 (Fort Leavenworth, KS: 1999).
- Department of the Air Force, Comprehensive Plan for the Organizational Structure of the U.S. Space Force, Barbara Barrett (Washington, DC, February 2020), https://www.airforcemag.com/app/uploads/2020/02/Comprehensive-Plan-for-the-Organizational-Struccture-of-the-USSF_Feb-2020.pdf
- Pendleton, John. DEFENSE HEADQUARTERS: Further Efforts to Examine Resource Needs and Improve Data Could Provide Additional Opportunities for Cost Savings, Report #GAO-12-345 (Washington, DC: Government Accountability Office, 2012).
- Punaro, Arnold L., “Report of the Reserve Forces Policy Board on Reserve Component Use, Balance, Cost and Savings: A Response to Questions from the Secretary of Defense” (memorandum to Secretary of Defense, Washington, DC: Reserve Forces Policy Board, February 11, 2014).
Commentaries (inclusion does not represent endorsement):
- Bennett, Vernon N., Military Force Structures in Small States: Providing for Relevant and Credible Military Capability (dissertation, Wellington, NZ: Victoria University of Wellington, 2018).
- Hornick, Charles, Daniel Burkhart, and Dave Shunk. “Rightsizing the army in Austere times.” Parameters 46, no. 3 (2016): 41-50, https://press.armywarcollege.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2752&context=parameters
- Korb, Lawrence J. and Max A. Bergmann, “Restructuring the Military,” Issues in Science and Technology 25, no. 1 (Fall 2008), https://issues.org/korb/
- Morgan, Michael A. Structure Matters: How Organizational Characteristics Affect Military Efforts (dissertation, University of Kentucky, 2015).
- Reed, Heather. “Advantages of Assigning Forces,” Military Review (May-June 2016): 119-125.
Title image credit: U.S. Army photo, public domain.
Force Structure (F): Force Strategy & Planning (FA) — Concepts and Doctrine (FC) — Force Development (FD) — Manning the Force (FM) — Organizing and Equipping the Force (FO) — Force Posture & Stationing (FP) — Roles and Missions (FR)
Library: Main Page — Professional Development (A) — Defense Enterprise (E) — Force Structure (F) — Modernization (M) — Personnel (P) — Readiness (R) — Special Enterprises (S) — Resource Management (X) — References (Z)