Considering a Cadre Augmented Army - RAND Corporation

-359- A Historical Analysis of Cadre
timely need to reconstitute units.” 320 This report provided much more detail than any
previous report by providing explicit cadre structures and analyzing some of the relative cost
tradeoffs.
9.8.3—GAO Foreign Cadre Report
In August of 1991, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a
report examining the reserve systems of other countries to “identify features that the U.S.
Army might consider as it restructures its forces.” 321 This report was requested by Congress
“because cadre divisions will require a substantive change in the way the Army organizes its
mobilization forces.” 322 The majority of the report was focused on the cadre reserve systems
used in Germany and the Soviet Union.
Summarizing the cadre system used in the Soviet Union, the GAO wrote: “as of
April 1991, about 102 of the estimated 185 Soviet divisions were cadre divisions staffed at 5
to 50 percent of their wartime personnel levels.” 323 This report included no more detail
about cadre forces in the Soviet Union than was included in Crow (1989). However, GAO
did note that “an additional feature of the Soviet Army is that units are maintained at various
states of readiness based on their role and priority for deployment.” 324 The Soviet Union
maintained a continuum of forces that included cadre units at different levels of readiness.
The continuum of forces concept was suggested by Assistant Secretary of Defense David
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320 Bailey (1991), p. 19
321 GAO (1991)
322 Tice (1991b)
323 GAO (1991), p. 24
324 GAO (1991), p. 25.