Military Officer - August 2006 - (Page 51)

During the ﬁrst four years of the cycle, Army Guard units will be most available for homeland defense missions and response to natural disasters. That will give governors access to about half of the Guard’s 350,000 troops at any time, Renaud says. An important beneﬁt of the six-year cycle is predictability. It tells troops when they are liable to deploy. That’s considered critical for soldiers who have full-time civilian jobs and obligations outside the military. So far, the Army Guard is about a third of the way through restructuring into BCTs and adopting the sixyear cycle, Dixon says. The task is supposed to be completed by 2011. Hurdles to jump The biggest potential roadblock might be equipment. Historically, the Guard has been equipped at about 65 percent of need. This spring Blum told congressional committees that “the Guard currently has less than 35 percent of the equipment it requires to perform its wartime mission.” Trucks, helicopters, Humvees, and other gear are being worn out and destroyed in Iraq at an unprecedented pace. “Right now, one year in Iraq equals ﬁve years of normal wear and tear,” says Col. Dennis Danielson, head of the Army Guard’s logistics division. The Army has promised the Guard $21 billion over the next ﬁve years to repair and replace equipment. “We’re very grateful, but that’s just the beginning,” Danielson says. The Army Guard has about $22 billion worth of equipment on hand now, he says. An additional $26.5 billion worth of tanks, Bradley ﬁghting vehicles, helicopters, and other gear is scheduled to cascade to the Guard from the active duty Army over several years. Even with the promised $21 billion, the Army Guard still will lack about $30 billion worth of weaponry, Danielson says. In addition, “we’ve got a lot of equipment like half-ton trucks that couldn’t deploy. A lot of equipment is theoretically going to have to be replaced if [we’re] going to be 100-percent modernized,” he says. Modernization is critical to both of the Guard’s missions, Blum told a Senate subcommittee in March. “Preparation for the overseas war-ﬁghting mission provides National Guard forces with the vast majority of the preparation required for homeland defense and civil support,” he said during a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing on emerging threats. “Homeland defense is mission one for the National Guard,” Blum testiﬁed. “Governors count on the National Guard to be the ﬁrst military responder and call on Guard assets at their disposal within hours of an event, which makes resourcing crucial.” Blum said the PHOTO: NORM DETTLAFF/AP Defending the homeland, members of the Wyoming National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Company build an anti-vehicle barrier, part of a 12-mile-long fence along the border between Mexico and New Mexico. National Guard is taking a number of steps to improve its homeland defense capabilities, among them: ■ setting up a joint force headquarters in each state to oversee emergency response efforts; ■ ﬁelding 12 regional chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear response teams; and ■ establishing reaction forces in each state to respond within eight hours of an incident by providing critical infrastructure protection, site security, and support to chemical, biological, or nuclear operations. Blum listed trucks, radios, and engineering equipment as “critical items” for the Guard’s homeland defense mission. “We got $700 million this year to buy homeland security and homeland defense equipment,” Danielson says. “It’s also stuff that’s required for full-spectrum warfare — SINCGARS [single channel ground and airborne radio system] radios, joint network nodes for satellite communications, small arms, wheeled vehicles,” etcetera. But that’s a fraction of the Army Guard’s needs, he says. “We know there is a big bill right now,” Danielson says. “What we’re going to get and when we’re going to get it — the Army’s working pretty hard to determine that.” MO AUGUST 2006 MILITARY OFFICER 51

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Military Officer - August 2006

Military Officer - August 2006 Contents From the Editor President’s Page Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Chapter Activities Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Changing of the Guard Four-Star Rating Long Term Care Kryptogram Pages of History Information Exchange MOAA Scholarship Donors Member Books Advertising Index MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps MOAA Member Services Encore

Military Officer - August 2006

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