Guard set to rebalance, grow - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Guard set to rebalance, grow

AUSA 2007, WASHINGTON D.C. — The Army National Guard will have 112 brigades — 28 of them brigade combat teams — after a historic rebalancing effort slated to be completed in 2013.

Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody, Army Guard Director Lt. Gen. Clyde Vaughn and Maj. Gen. Bennett Landreneau, adjutant general of Louisiana, on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding to formalize the plan. The signing took place at the annual Association of the United States Army’s annual conference in Washington.

“This has been a journey,” Cody said. “It has been a necessary journey for our Army and our country.”

The rebalancing effort will help the force sustain the fight overseas and, at the same time, give soldiers more predictability, Cody said.

“It gives us the right balance so we don’t wear anybody out,” he said. “I think this is going to make our Army stronger.”

The plan calls for the Guard to have 28 BCTs; 46 multi-functional brigades, such as aviation brigades or maneuver enhancement brigades; and 38 functional brigades, including engineer brigades and military police brigades.

“This gives us more formations in the rotation schedule,” Vaughn said. “It’s more capacity for the Army.”

The plan also stabilizes the force by keeping units together and whole in one state, under the control of a single governor.

“We want to grow end-strength so we’re over strength … so we don’t have hollow force structure,” Vaughn said.

The Army Guard has an end-strength of more than 352,790. It was authorized 350,000 through 2007, and in 2008 it is authorized an end-strength of 351,300, with a goal of 358,000 in 2013.

Vaughn said he wants to accelerate that growth, on par with the Army’s accelerated plan to grow to 547,000 by 2011, and pending legislation could allow the Guard to go up to 3 percent above its authorized end-strength. The current limit is 2 percent above or below the authorized figure.

One key to the rebalancing plan is soldiers and units will be resourced to receive the equipment they need, officials said. The Guard has left much of its best equipment in theater for deploying units, while units at home struggled to find equipment to train with and use in case of domestic emergencies.

“Not only [will it be] ‘This is the force structure we have and we’re going to keep it,’ the equipment is on the way, too,” Landreneau said.

It’s important for soldiers to know that they’ll be equipped like the active Army, said Maj. Gen. Donald Storm, adjutant general of Kentucky.

“The Army supports the implementation of this plan,” said Col. Leodis Jennings, director of force management for the Army Guard.

There is $4.8 billion dedicated to equipment for the Guard through this rebalancing process, Jennings said.

“Before 2001, 2002, the Army National Guard got maybe $400 million to $500 million a year for equipment,” he said. “What we have is a commitment of $4.8 billion to equip these units. If you’re a soldier in a battlefield surveillance brigade and you are a [tactical unmanned aerial vehicle] operator, you’re going to get a Raven. If you’re in one of those units with Vietnam era trucks, you’re going to get new trucks.”

Quoting Vaughn, Jennings said that “this is the right force structure at the right time, at the right place. It has improved the capabilities of the Army National Guard.”