Determining the Army National Guard's Role in Homeland Security and How to Reorganize the Guard to Accomplish that Mission

The purpose of this SRP is to define the role of the Army National Guard in HLS (excluding National Missile Defense) and is framed within three critical assumptions. First, the attacks on II September highlighted the need for military units organized, trained and equipped specifically for HLS. Secondly, it assumes no increases in force structure so current forces must be used. Finally, the ARNG is the only component within the Army with forces not allocated to a specific warfighting mission. Though all elements of the Total Force are key players in this mission, especially the Reserve Components, the scope of this paper is limited to the Army National Guard. This paper begins by defining Homeland Security and the Army's role as currently identified in the draft Army HLS Planning Guidance and the Federal Emergency Response Plan. ft then examines the capabilities of the ARNG using the current force structure metric, and assesses two courses of action as recommended by the National Defense Panel and the Hart-Rudman Commission on the role of the Army Guard in HLS. Finally, it will conclude with recommendations on the best method to employ the Army Guard and some force structure changes required to accomplish this.