Army Force Structure

Although much attention has been paid to improving the readiness of National Guard combat forces, the needs of the Army's support forces in both the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve should not, in GAO's view, be overlooked. This testimony addresses the status of the Army's combat support and combat service support forces during the ongoing military downsizing. GAO believes that support units, so critical to success in the Persian Gulf War, must be maintained in sufficient numbers and that their resource needs must be met. GAO discusses (1) the importance of reserve support forces to the Army's total force, (2) some problems that the Army encountered in deploying enough ready support forces to the Gulf War and ways in which the Army's equipping policy may have contributed to some readiness problems, and (3) ways in which the Army can improve the strength of its support forces as it scales back and restructures.