Considering a Cadre Augmented Army - RAND Corporation

-101- A Budgetary Analysis of Cadre
Other public sources have estimated the annual cost of an AC BCT at $1.2 billion. 123 Using
the $1.08 billion estimate provides a conservative analysis of the cost savings from a cadre
augmented force.
In the body of this paper, we use this estimate for the cost of an AC BCT to
calculate the cost savings from trading AC BCTs for cadre BCTs averaged over periods of
peace and war and in peacetime. In Section A.1, we calculated that the average long-run cost
of a cadre BCT in the +6 Cadre force when wars occur 33 percent of the time is 41 percent
of an AC BCT. If an AC BCT costs $1.08 billion per year, then the average long-run cost of
a cadre BCT in the +6 Cadre force is $443 million per year, $637 million less than an AC
BCT. Therefore, trading six cadre BCT for six AC BCT reduces average long run cost by
about $4 billion annually (6*$637 million). Under the same assumptions, the annual
peacetime cost of a cadre BCT is $216 million, $864 million less than an AC BCT.
Therefore, trading six AC BCTs for six cadre BCTs during peacetime reduces annual costs
by about $5 billion (6*$864 million). Cost savings for other cadre for AC tradeoffs were
calculated similarly.
A.2.2—The Cost of Trading RC BCTs for Cadre BCTs
In the main body of this report, we assumed that an RC BCT costs 28 percent of an
AC BCT during peacetime. This is a rough estimate based on Jaffe (2006). Jaffe (2006)
estimated the cost of an RC soldier to be 22 percent of an AC soldier in 2001 and 28 percent
in 2006. This is in the middle of the range of previous estimates. Reischauer (1990) estimated
that an Army National Guard heavy unit based in the United States costs 20 percent of an
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123 New York Times Editorial Board (2006) and IISS (2007)