The Army has organized to provide 4 or 5 Army National Guard brigade combat teams to the force pool each year. This means that members of the Guard can expect to be sent overseas once every 5 years (and they generally have a 6-year term of service unless they are coming from the active component to serve their remaining 2-4 years of reserve obligation).
Training is gearing up for that cycle:
After 11 years of war and as the U.S. draws down in Afghanistan, soldiers in the Army National Guard and Army Reserve will largely see a return to the peacetime schedule of drilling one weekend a month and two weeks a year.
However, in an effort to maintain the components’ readiness and combat edge, some soldiers can expect additional training days as they get closer to the fifth year of the Army Force Generation model.
The Guard and Reserve are on a five-year rotational ARFORGEN model, which progressively resets and trains units for possible deployment. Units spend a year in reset and three years in training. During the fifth year, they are available for mobilization and deployment if needed.
This adds predictability to reservists' lives and means that the units earmarked for potential deployment each year are at their peak readiness.
