Joseph E. Whitlock

How to Make Army Force Generation Work for the Army's Reserve Components Joseph E. Whitlock

The Army needs to implement Army Force Generation (Arforgen) in addition to its ongoing transformation and move to a more modular force. To achieve a campaign quality Army with joint and expeditionary qualities fully, the Army must do so quickly, while also keeping its Reserve Components full partners throughout this process. Without Arforgen, the Army will continue to be challenged seriously or even be unable to fulfill its current global force requirements. Fully integrating the Army's Rcs into Arforgen is essential and critical for the Army to succeed. This paper describes Arforgen, discusses some of its critical assumptions related to Rc units, and explains what changes are required at the Department of Defense (DoD), Department of the Army (Da), and the individual Rc levels so that the Army can integrate its Rc units fully into Arforgen. The paper details needed changes at both the institutional and operational levels at Da and DoD.