This effort supports the chief of staff of the Army's objective of setting the Army on a supply-based ARFORGEN model in fiscal year 2012 (FY12). This will enable the Army to provide the combatant commanders a mission force of one corps headquarters, five division headquarters, 20 brigade combat teams, and an enabling force comprised of 90,000 Soldiers (expressed as 1/5/20/90K) annually.
I assume this is a total force figure, representing 5 National Guard combat brigades made available each year out of their pool plus the balance in active component brigades. The goal is to make sure that active forces have two years off the rotation for every year on; while Guard units have one year on and four years off the rotation. The Guard (and Army Reserve) are cementing their roles as operational reserves (available soon for any contingency) rather than being strategic reserves (called up for a long war when all other resources--other than building new units from scratch--are exhausted).
I assume the Marines could throw in one or two regimental combat teams (equivalent to Army brigades). Thus, this closely approximates the size of the force we had deployed overseas in combat at the height of the surge.
Nobody plans to wage such a war, but then again, we didn't plan to wage the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the way the worked out. So it helps to plan for that type of thing. And it helps if our potential enemies know we can handle such a contingency.
I do find it interesting that the combined Iraq/Afghanistan peak is the planning focus. We may not plan for the last war; but apparently we are planning for the next contingency to require the same size army as the last war's army. But as the saying goes, you go to war with the army you have and not the army you wish you had. So we'll go to war with 20 brigades and hope that is enough.
[ARFORGEN means Army Force Generation.]
