Research for Manpower and Personnal

Abstract:D6584 The latest Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) tasked the Department of Defense to perform a Comprehensive Review of Active/Reserve Force Mix, organization, priority missions, and associated resources. To support the review, the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) (Reserve Affairs, Manpower and Personnel) asked CNA to identify and develop examples of concepts that could improve capabilities and/or alleviate high-demand/low-density constraints in the Navy and Marine Corps. The concepts could be ones that the Navy is already experimenting with-as long as they highlight the contributions that the Reserves can potentially make to overall capabilities. This report describes seven concepts for using reservists and reserve units to extend the capabilities of the Navy; one also applies to the Marine Corps. The seven concepts are (1) augmenting selected carrier flight deck and ordnance ratings, (2) augmenting carrier aviation intermediate maintenance within the Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department (AIMD), (3) using reservists to increase ship's time in areas of operations (AORs), (4) staffing ships during nondeployed periods, (5) having the reserve EA-6B squadron train with Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs), (6) moving workload off ships, and (7) filling emerging skill niches. The report discusses each concept's feasibility and the need for further research.