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THE THREE VECTORS

Operation Desert Storm

The Army will provide all support necessary to accomplish national objectives in Operation Desert Storm.

Sustained Readiness

The Army must maintain a trained and ready force to meet ongoing commitments worldwide and for rapid action in unforeseeable contingencies.

The Future Army

The Army must shape the Total
Force for the future.

Maintaining a Trained and Ready Total Force for the 1990s and Beyond

A Statement on The Posture of
The United States Army

Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993

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At this time last year, Army forces, as well as those of our sister services, had just completed the liberation of Panama from a brutal dictator. Today, over 275,000 Army soldiers are deployed in Saudi Arabia, spearheading an international coalition to liberate Kuwait. The world "in the throes of fundamental and unprecedented change" that we spoke of in the Army's January 1990 white paper, "A Strategic Force for the 1990s and Beyond," is clearly upon us.

The Army is now engaged in accomplishing national and United Nation's objectives in Operation Desert Storm. While this is clearly our most important current objective, the United States has vital interests in other regions of the world that may be challenged during this turbulent post-Cold War period. Moreover, we have a responsibility to take steps today to prepare the Army for the future. Therefore, even as the Army and other coalition ground forces stand ready to evict the Iraqi army from Kuwait, we must sustain the readiness of Army forces worldwide to meet ongoing commitments and to act rapidly in unforeseeable contingencies, and we must continue to execute our plans to shape the Total Force for the remainder of the 1990s and beyond.

Although we have temporarily delayed some near-term actions in our plan to reshape the Army and have activated a substantial number of reserve units and soldiers in order to support Operation Desert Storm, we will resume the builddown we began last year as soon as prudent. However, it is vital that we resume our build-down in a measured manner so that we can properly care for the Army soldiers, civilians, and family members who have served their country so well in this current emergency and so that we can preserve the quality and the readiness of the Total Force.

The employment of Army forces over the past year has unambiguously validated the six fundamental imperatives, which will continue to guide our resource decisions as we reshape the force. They also have reinforced the need for a versatile, deployable, lethal, and expansible Army for the future. This Posture Statement details the Army's plans to maintain the essential quality and readiness of the Army as we reshape the Total Force in an era of precipitously declining resources and international change.

Today's Army is trained and ready as never before in our 200-year history -- an accomplishment that took a decade to evolve and that would not have been possible without the support of Congress and the American people. America's Army is well prepared for the challenges we face in the tumultuous decade ahead.

15 February 1991

Contents

L. The Evolving National Security Environment...............................................................................................

Challenges, Risks, and Opportunities..

The Three Vectors

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