Considering a Cadre Augmented Army - RAND Corporation

-354- A Historical Analysis of Cadre
With support from the Army and the executive branch, 299 the cadre concept had
made it to the national spotlight for the first time since the early twentieth century. Cadre
forces were examined in nearly all of the major force structure reviews performed in the
early 1990s.
9.7—FORCE STRUCTURE REVIEWS
In the Cold War drawdown period, a number of studies were commissioned to
analyze the appropriate size and structure of the post Cold War military. Nearly all of these
reports discussed cadre in some form. The first of these studies was published in December
of 1990 as the “Total Force Policy Report to the Congress.” 300 This report reviewed the
appropriateness of the existing force structure with “particular emphasis on the role of the
reserve components.” 301 The report says of cadre that the DoD “should continue to
examine ways to retain access to trained personnel … Some forces could be placed in a
cadre status, in which equipment would be retained along with a core of experienced
personnel to train new forces.” 302 The recommendations in this report appear to be based on
the cadre proposal in CBO (1990). The DoD report recommended maintaining two
divisions in cadre status that should be “manned by about 3,000 personnel apiece and …
have only a skeleton support structure.” 303 This is exactly the same type of cadre unit
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299 There was also some support in Congress for the cadre idea as shown by a provision in the National
Defense Authorization Act of 1991 that called for the Army to test the cadre concept by placing “at least one
active division in cadre status as a reserve training division by the end of fiscal year 1992.” [United States
Congress (1990), p. 268]. However, this test was never carried out.
300 DoD (1990)
301 DoD (1990), p. i
302 DoD (1990), p. 60
303 DoD (1990), p. 67