THE POWER OF NUMBERS: CHALLENGES OF RAPIDLY EXPANDING THE ARMY
By Paul Larson and Andrew A. Hill February 13, 2019
over the past four decades the Army has produced little innovation in its ability to rapidly expand the force
Portions of this essay are excepted from “The Total Army,†an Elihu Root Study by the 2016 Carlisle Scholars Program at the U.S. Army War College.
It is time for the Army to innovate in meeting the challenge of rapid expansion. Since the early 1980s, the U.S. Army has generally preferred to maintain a standing force that is ready for war, with little attention to improving its ability to expand rapidly. The era of the all-volunteer force has seen the emergence of tremendously capable Army units in times of peace, an anomaly in American history. Yet it has also seen the emergence of an odd dogma regarding Army expansion. Where prior generations of U.S. Army leaders were routinely expected to grow and deploy the Army over the course of months, the modern U.S. Army sees expansion as something requiring years. Indeed, listening to some Army leaders one gets the impression that rapid expansion is an unwanted ability, since it would give the congress justification to cut Army end-strength without incurring significant risk.
https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/articles/the-power-of-numbers/
