	Importance for Congress

Title XVII of the Carl Levin and Howard P. "Buck" McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 ( P.L. 113-291 ) established the National Commission on the Future of the Army (NCFA) to conduct a comprehensive study of the structure of the Army (see the Appendix ). The NCFA reported its findings to Congress and the Administration on January 28, 2016, and made a number of recommendations that may or may not be acted upon. Some have suggested the historical post-war practice of reducing defense budgets, in part, contributed to the perceived need for a commission to address proposed changes to the Army. The decision to establish an NCFA was also likely influenced by two previous commissions that also addressed contemporary military issues—the 2014 National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force and the 2015 Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission. The Army's Aviation Restructuring Initiative (ARI)

Some say the Army's 2013 Aviation Restructuring Initiative (ARI) significantly influenced the decision to establish the NCFA. NCFA's Major Recommendations

On January 28, 2016, the NCFA released its final report. As part of the report, the NCFA produced a classified appendix (see topic outline and access instructions in Appendix E of the report), which is available to those with the appropriate clearance and a "need to know." The Army should forward station an Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) in Europe. Regarding the Army's proposed Aviation Restructuring Initiative (ARI), the commission recommends the Army maintain 24 manned AH-64 Apache battalions—20 in the Regular Army and 4 in the National Guard. The Impact of the Commission's Recommendations on the "Corporate" Army

As previously discussed, the NCFA final report contained 63 recommendations for the Nation, the President, Congress, the Department of Defense, the Joint Staff, Combatant Commands, the Army, and Army Service Component Commands (Appendix B of the report). Potential Issues for Congress

		How Would Congress and the Administration Implement NCFA's Recommendations? How Much Would It Cost to Implement the Recommendations? Potential Difficulties in Implementing the NCFA's Recommendations

There are a number of potential difficulties associated with implementing the commission's recommendations. How Would Congress Oversee the Implementation of the NCFA's Recommendations? Title XVII, P.L. National Commission on the Future of the Army. (2) Considerations.—In undertaking the study required by subsection (a), the Commission shall give particular consideration to the following:
(A) An evaluation and identification of a structure for the Army that—
(i) has the depth and scalability to meet current and anticipated requirements of the combatant commands;
(ii) achieves cost-efficiency between the regular and reserve components of the Army, manages military risk, takes advantage of the strengths and capabilities of each, and considers fully burdened lifecycle costs;
(iii) ensures that the regular and reserve components of the Army have the capacity needed to support current and anticipated homeland defense and disaster assistance missions in the United States;
(iv) provides for sufficient numbers of regular members of the Army to provide a base of trained personnel from which the personnel of the reserve components of the Army could be recruited;
(v) maintains a peacetime rotation force to avoid exceeding operational tempo goals of 1:2 for active members of the Army and 1:5 for members of the reserve components of the Army; and
(vi) manages strategic and operational risk by making tradeoffs among readiness, efficiency, effectiveness, capability, and affordability.
Title XVII of the Carl Levin and Howard P. "Buck" McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (P.L. 113-291) established the National Commission on the Future of the Army (NCFA) to conduct a comprehensive study of the structure of the Army. The NCFA reported its findings to Congress and the Administration on January 28, 2016, and made a number of recommendations that may or may not be acted upon.
Some have suggested the historical post-war practice of reducing defense budgets contributed to the perceived need for a commission to address proposed changes to the Army. The perceived success of two previous commissions—the 2014 National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force and the 2015 Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission—also likely played a role in the establishment of the commission. Some say controversy surrounding the Army's 2013 Aviation Restructuring Initiative (ARI) significantly influenced the decision to establish the NCFA.
As part of its final report, the NCFA produced a classified appendix, which is available to those with the appropriate clearance and a "need to know." The 208-page report contained 63 recommendations for the Nation, the President, Congress, the Department of Defense, the Joint Staff, Combatant Commands, the Army, and Army Service Component Commands. Some of the report's major recommendations include forward stationing an Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) in Europe; retaining an 11th Regular Army Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB) and forward stationing it in Korea; and recommending the Army maintain 24 manned AH-64 Apache battalions—20 in the Regular Army and 4 in the National Guard.
Major themes of the NCFA's report include developing "One Army" and the prioritization of training and readiness. Some general observations of the commission's recommendations include the importance of the NCFA classified appendix; the impact of the commission's recommendations on the "Corporate" Army; the history and challenges of past and current Army initiatives; and force structure issues outside the Title XVII mandate.
Potential issues for Congress include
to what extent will Congress and the Administration implement NCFA's recommendations; how much would it cost to implement the recommendations; potential difficulties in implementing the NCFA's recommendations; and how Congress would oversee the implementation of the NCFA's recommendations.
The author of this report served on the staff of the National Commission on the Future of the Army from June 1, 2015, until September 30, 2015. The information and analysis contained in this report are derived from open source data. Participation on this commission informed but did not influence the content of this report.