Considering a Cadre Augmented Army - RAND Corporation

-145- An Operational Analysis of Cadre
1. INTRODUCTION
The first paper of this dissertation showed that a cadre augmented force can
significantly reduce annual costs. Those analyses were based on a specific conceptualization
of how a cadre unit would be structured, organized, activated, filled, trained, and
demobilized. However, there are a number of different ways that we might conceptualize a
cadre unit. From cadre unit design choices such as structure and organization to outside
constraints such as activation, filling, and training, there are a myriad of issues that could lead
a cadre unit to look very different from the one we analyzed in the first paper of this
dissertation. This paper explores these design choice and constraints. The major issues
regarding cadre units can be separated into peacetime and wartime issues. This chapter
provides a brief overview of these issues.
We find that the two major concerns with cadre units in practice are activation and
filling. In the first paper, we assume a 12 month deliberation delay for national leaders to
decide whether or not to activate cadre units. A longer delay could mean that cadre units are
activated too late to be of use. We find that filling is a concern for all of the cadre augmented
forces analyzed in this dissertation because it is unlikely that recruiting alone could fill out
even the smallest cadre force. We consider Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) activation and
offering bonuses to RC personnel to serve in cadre units as ways to supplement recruiting
increases. However, each of these alternatives has drawbacks that need to be carefully
considered.