Considering a Cadre Augmented Army - RAND Corporation

-21- A Budgetary Analysis of Cadre
1. INTRODUCTION
The introduction to this dissertation asserted that integrating cadre units into the
Army could reduce costs without significantly increasing military risk. However, the
introduction says nothing about how much cadre units could reduce costs or how relying on
cadre units might affect military risk. The magnitude of the cost savings is important because
integrating cadre units into the force requires significant institutional changes and the cost
savings must be of significant magnitude to make these changes worthwhile. Measuring
military risk is important because relying on a lower readiness force will increase military risk.
The tradeoff between cost and military risk is the topic of this paper.
This chapter introduces the reader to cadre units and the metrics, assumptions, and
models needed to evaluate them. We begin by discussing how we conceptualize a cadre unit.
We then define key terms, make explicit all assumptions, and provide an overview of the
model used to evaluate cadre.
1.1—CONCEPTUALIZING A CADRE UNIT
There are a number of different ways that the one can conceptualize a cadre unit.
The second paper of this dissertation explores many of these possibilities. In this section, we
preview the key issues to provide the reader with a context for the analyses performed in this
paper. Cadre units face different issues in peacetime and in wartime so we address these
issues separately.