30 Brigade Combat Teams: is the Army too small?

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to determine the impact of a contingency operation on Army dwell time. The Department of Defense (DOD) goal for the active Army is for every one year a unit is deployed, the unit gets two years at home. We use a simulation to model the number of times a Brigade Combat Team (BCT) deploys in support of a contingency operation over a specified period of time. This enables us to estimate the amount of time a unit was deployed and its dwell time. The results of the simulation show that the current force structure is not sufficient to sustain a prolonged contingency operation and support existing requirements. To meet the dwell time goal established by DOD, the Army must increase its capacity. In order to increase the number of BCTs, the Army will have to increase its end strength.