The U.S. Army will begin to test a concept of combining active-duty and reserve components this summer as the military service aims to maximize the utilization of its manpower, Federal News Radio reported Tuesday.Jared Serbu writes the Army’s Associated Units initiative is based upon a U.S. Air Force multicomponent force strategy meant to help its airmen share piloting and maintenance operations at a military air base.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told House Armed Services Committee members during a hearing last week that an integrated active-reserve component will undergo professional development and field training programs.
“What we’re trying to do is put teeth behind the idea of ‘total force’ and make that real,” Milley added to the committee, the station reports.
The report said the branch will combine members of the Task Force 1-28 at Fort Benning, Georgia, with those of the 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team under the pilot project and plans to expand the units integration effort to 11 other bases of the Army later.
