Organization

Planningedit

By 2017, a task force was formed to address Army modernization, which triggered shifts of units: RDECOM, and ARCIC, from within Army Materiel Command (AMC), and TRADOC, respectively, to a new Army Command (ACOM) in 2018. The Army Futures Command (AFC), is a peer of FORSCOM, TRADOC, and AMC, the other ACOMs. AFC's mission is modernization reform: to design hardware, as well as to work within the acquisition process which defines materiel for AMC. TRADOC's mission is to define the architecture and organization of the Army, and to train and supply soldiers to FORSCOM.:minutes 2:30–15:00 AFC's cross-functional teams (CFTs) are Futures Command's vehicle for sustainable reform of the acquisition process for the future. In order to support the Army's modernization priorities, its FY2020 budget allocated $30 billion for the top six modernization priorities over the next five years. The $30 billion came from $8 billion in cost avoidance and $22 billion in terminations.

Army componentsedit

The task of organizing the U.S. Army commenced in 1775. In the first one hundred years of its existence, the United States Army was maintained as a small peacetime force to man permanent forts and perform other non-wartime duties such as engineering and construction works. During times of war, the U.S. Army was augmented by the much larger United States Volunteers which were raised independently by various state governments. States also maintained full-time militias which could also be called into the service of the army.

By the twentieth century, the U.S. Army had mobilized the U.S. Volunteers on four occasions during each of the major wars of the nineteenth century. During World War I, the "National Army" was organized to fight the conflict, replacing the concept of U.S. Volunteers. It was demobilized at the end of World War I, and was replaced by the Regular Army, the Organized Reserve Corps and the state militias. In the 1920s and 1930s, the "career" soldiers were known as the "Regular Army" with the "Enlisted Reserve Corps" and "Officer Reserve Corps" augmented to fill vacancies when needed.

In 1941, the "Army of the United States" was founded to fight World War II. The Regular Army, Army of the United States, the National Guard and Officer/Enlisted Reserve Corps (ORC and ERC) existed simultaneously. After World War II, the ORC and ERC were combined into the United States Army Reserve. The Army of the United States was re-established for the Korean War and Vietnam War and was demobilized upon the suspension of the draft.

Currently, the Army is divided into the Regular Army, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard. Some states further maintain state defense forces, as a type of reserve to the National Guard, while all states maintain regulations for state militias. State militias are both "organized", meaning that they are armed forces usually part of the state defense forces, or "unorganized" simply meaning that all able bodied males may be eligible to be called into military service.

The U.S. Army is also divided into several branches and functional areas. Branches include officers, warrant officers, and enlisted Soldiers while functional areas consist of officers who are reclassified from their former branch into a functional area. However, officers continue to wear the branch insignia of their former branch in most cases, as functional areas do not generally have discrete insignia. Some branches, such as Special Forces, operate similarly to functional areas in that individuals may not join their ranks until having served in another Army branch. Careers in the Army can extend into cross-functional areas for officer, warrant officer, enlisted, and civilian personnel.

U.S. Army branches and functional areas
Branch	Branch	Functional Area (FA)
Acquisition Corps (AC)	Air Defense Artillery (AD)	Information Network Engineering (FA 26)
Adjutant General's Corps (AG) Includes Army Bands (AB)	Armor (AR) Includes Cavalry (CV)	Information Operations (FA 30)
Aviation (AV)	Civil Affairs Corps (CA)	Strategic Intelligence (FA 34)
Chaplain Corps (CH)	Chemical Corps (CM)	Space Operations (FA 40)
Cyber Corps (CY)	Dental Corps (DC)	Public Affairs Officer (FA 46)
Corps of Engineers (EN)	Field Artillery (FA)	Academy Professor (FA 47)
Finance Corps (FI)	Infantry (IN)	Foreign Area Officer (FA 48)
Inspector General (IG)	Logistics (LG)	Operations Research/Systems Analysis (FA 49)
Judge Advocate General's Corps (JA)	Military Intelligence Corps (MI)	Force Management (FA 50)
Medical Corps (MC)	Medical Service Corps (MS)	Acquisition (FA 51)
Military Police Corps (MP)	Army Nurse Corps (AN)	Simulation Operations (FA 57)
Psychological Operations (PO)	Medical Specialist Corps (SP)	Army Marketing (FA 58)
Quartermaster Corps (QM)	Staff Specialist Corps (SS) (USAR and ARNG only)	Health Services (FA 70)
Special Forces (SF)	Ordnance Corps (OD)	Laboratory Sciences (FA 71)
Veterinary Corps (VC)	Public Affairs (PA)	Preventive Medicine Sciences (FA 72)
Transportation Corps (TC)	Signal Corps (SC)	Behavioral Sciences (FA 73)
Special branch insignias (for specific duty assignments)
National Guard Bureau (NGB)	General Staff	U.S. Military Academy Staff
Chaplain Candidate	Officer Candidate	Warrant Officer Candidate
Aide-de-camp		Senior Enlisted Advisor (SEA)

Before 1933, members of the Army National Guard were considered state militia until they were mobilized into U.S. Army, typically on the onset of war. Since the 1933 amendment to the National Defense Act of 1916, all Army National Guard soldiers have held dual status. They serve as National Guardsmen under the authority of the governor of their state or territory and as a reserve members of the U.S. Army under the authority of the president, in the Army National Guard of the United States.

Since the adoption of the total force policy, in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, reserve component soldiers have taken a more active role in U.S. military operations. For example, Reserve and Guard units took part in the Gulf War, peacekeeping in Kosovo, Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Army commands and army service component commandsedit

Headquarters, United States Department of the Army (HQDA):

Army Commands	Current commander	Location of headquarters
United States Army Forces Command (FORSCOM)	GEN Michael X. Garrett	Fort Bragg, North Carolina
United States Army Futures Command (AFC)	GEN John M. Murray	Austin, Texas
United States Army Materiel Command (AMC)	GEN Gustave F. Perna	Redstone Arsenal, Alabama
United States Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC)	GEN Paul E. Funk II	Fort Eustis, Virginia
Army Service Component Commands	Current commander	Location of headquarters
United States Army Central (ARCENT)/Third Army	LTG Terry Ferrell	Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina
United States Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF)/Seventh Army and Ninth Army	GEN Christopher G. Cavoli	Clay Kaserne, Wiesbaden, Germany
United States Army North (ARNORTH)/Fifth Army	LTG Laura J. Richardson	Joint Base San Antonio, Texas
United States Army Pacific (USARPAC)	GEN Paul LaCamera	Fort Shafter, Hawaii
United States Army South (ARSOUTH)/Sixth Army	MG Daniel R. Walrath	Joint Base San Antonio, Texas
United States Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER)	LTG Stephen G. Fogarty	Fort Belvoir, Virginia
United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command/United States Army Strategic Command (USASMDC/ARSTRAT)	LTG Daniel L. Karbler	Redstone Arsenal, Alabama
United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC)	LTG Francis M. Beaudette	Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Operational Force Headquarters	Current commander	Location of headquarters
Eighth Army (EUSA)	LTG Michael A. Bills	Camp Humphreys, South Korea
Direct reporting units	Current commander	Location of headquarters
Arlington National Cemetery and Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery	Katharine Kelley (civilian)	Arlington, Virginia
United States Army Acquisition Support Center (USAASC)	Craig A. Spisak (civilian)	Fort Belvoir, Virginia
United States Army Civilian Human Resources Agency (CHRA)	BG Larry D. Gottardi	Washington, D.C.
United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)	LTG Scott A. Spellmon	Washington, D.C.
United States Army Criminal Investigation Command (USACIDC)	MG Kevin Vereen	Quantico, Virginia
United States Army Human Resources Command (HRC)	MG Jason T. Evans	Alexandria, Virginia
United States Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM)	MG Christopher S. Ballard	Fort Belvoir, Virginia
United States Army Medical Command (MEDCOM)	LTG R. Scott Dingle	Joint Base San Antonio, Texas
United States Army Military District of Washington (MDW)	MG Omar J. Jones IV	Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C.
United States Army Recruiting Command (USAREC)	MG Frank M. Muth	Fort Knox, Kentucky
United States Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC)	MG Joel K. Tyler	Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD
United States Army War College (AWC)	MG John S. Kem	Carlisle, Pennsylvania
United States Military Academy (USMA)	LTG Darryl A. Williams	West Point, New York

Source: U.S. Army organization

Structureedit

See Structure of the United States Army for detailed treatment of the history, components, administrative and operational structure and the branches and functional areas of the Army.

The U.S. Army is made up of three components: the active component, the Regular Army; and two reserve components, the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve. Both reserve components are primarily composed of part-time soldiers who train once a month – known as battle assemblies or unit training assemblies (UTAs) – and conduct two to three weeks of annual training each year. Both the Regular Army and the Army Reserve are organized under Title 10 of the United States Code, while the National Guard is organized under Title 32. While the Army National Guard is organized, trained and equipped as a component of the U.S. Army, when it is not in federal service it is under the command of individual state and territorial governors. However, the District of Columbia National Guard reports to the U.S. president, not the district's mayor, even when not federalized. Any or all of the National Guard can be federalized by presidential order and against the governor's wishes.

The U.S. Army is led by a civilian secretary of the Army, who has the statutory authority to conduct all the affairs of the army under the authority, direction and control of the secretary of defense. The chief of staff of the Army, who is the highest-ranked military officer in the army, serves as the principal military adviser and executive agent for the secretary of the Army, i.e., its service chief; and as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a body composed of the service chiefs from each of the four military services belonging to the Department of Defense who advise the president of the United States, the secretary of defense and the National Security Council on operational military matters, under the guidance of the chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1986, the Goldwater–Nichols Act mandated that operational control of the services follows a chain of command from the president to the secretary of defense directly to the unified combatant commanders, who have control of all armed forces units in their geographic or function area of responsibility, thus the secretaries of the military departments (and their respective service chiefs underneath them) only have the responsibility to organize, train and equip their service components. The army provides trained forces to the combatant commanders for use as directed by the secretary of defense.

By 2013, the army shifted to six geographical commands that align with the six geographical unified combatant commands (CCMD):

United States Army Central headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina
United States Army North headquartered at Fort Sam Houston, Texas
United States Army South headquartered at Fort Sam Houston, Texas
United States Army Europe headquartered at Clay Kaserne, Wiesbaden, Germany
United States Army Pacific headquartered at Fort Shafter, Hawaii
United States Army Africa headquartered at Vicenza, Italy

The army also transformed its base unit from divisions to brigades. Division lineage will be retained, but the divisional headquarters will be able to command any brigade, not just brigades that carry their divisional lineage. The central part of this plan is that each brigade will be modular, i.e., all brigades of the same type will be exactly the same and thus any brigade can be commanded by any division. As specified before the 2013 end-strength re-definitions, the three major types of brigade combat teams are:

Armored brigades, with strength of 4,743 troops as of 2014.
Stryker brigades, with strength of 4,500 troops as of 2014.
Infantry brigades, with strength of 4,413 troops as of 2014.

In addition, there are combat support and service support modular brigades. Combat support brigades include aviation (CAB) brigades, which will come in heavy and light varieties, fires (artillery) brigades (now transforms to division artillery) and expeditionary military intelligence brigades. Combat service support brigades include sustainment brigades and come in several varieties and serve the standard support role in an army.

Combat maneuver organizationsedit

To track the effects of the 2018 budget cuts, see Transformation of the United States Army#Divisions and brigades

The U.S. Army currently consists of 10 active divisions and one deployable division headquarters (7th Infantry Division) as well as several independent units. The force is in the process of contracting after several years of growth. In June 2013, the Army announced plans to downsize to 32 active brigade combat teams by 2015 to match a reduction in active duty strength to 490,000 soldiers. Army chief of staff Raymond Odierno projected that the Army was to shrink to "450,000 in the active component, 335,000 in the National Guard and 195,000 in U.S. Army Reserve" by 2018. However, this plan was scrapped by the new administration and now the Army plans to grow by 16,000 soldiers to a total of 476,000 by October 2017. The National Guard and the Army Reserve will see a smaller expansion.

Within the Army National Guard and United States Army Reserve there are a further 8 divisions, over 15 maneuver brigades, additional combat support and combat service support brigades and independent cavalry, infantry, artillery, aviation, engineer and support battalions. The Army Reserve in particular provides virtually all psychological operations and civil affairs units.

United States Army Forces Command (FORSCOM)

Direct reporting units	Current commander	Location of headquarters
I Corps	LTG Randy A. George	Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington
III Corps	LTG Robert "Pat" White	Fort Hood, Texas
V Corps	LTG John S. Kolasheski	Fort Knox, Kentucky
XVIII Airborne Corps	LTG Michael E. Kurilla	Fort Bragg, North Carolina
First Army (FUSA)	LTG Thomas S. James Jr.	Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois
United States Army Reserve Command (USARC)	LTG Jody J. Daniels	Fort Bragg, North Carolina

Combat maneuver units aligned under FORSCOM
Name	Headquarters	Subunits	Subordinate to
1st Armored Division	Fort Bliss, Texas and New Mexico	3 armored BCTs (ABCTs), 1 Division Artillery (DIVARTY), 1 Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB) and 1 sustainment brigade	III Corps
1st Cavalry Division	Fort Hood, Texas	3 armored BCTs, 1 DIVARTY, 1 CAB, and a Sustainment Brigade	III Corps
1st Infantry Division	Fort Riley, Kansas	2 armored BCTs, 1 DIVARTY, 1 CAB and 1 sustainment brigade	III Corps
3rd Cavalry Regiment	Fort Hood, Texas	4 Stryker squadrons, 1 fires squadron, 1 engineer squadron and 1 support squadron (overseen by the 1st Cavalry Division)	III Corps
3rd Infantry Division	Fort Stewart, Georgia	2 armored BCT, 1 DIVARTY, 1 CAB and 1 sustainment brigade as well as the 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Georgia Army National Guard	XVIII Airborne Corps
4th Infantry Division	Fort Carson, Colorado	2 Stryker BCT, 1 armored BCT, DIVARTY, 1 CAB and 1 sustainment brigade	III Corps
7th Infantry Division	Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington	Administrative control of 2 Stryker BCTs and 1 DIVARTY of the 2nd Infantry Division as well as the 81st Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the Washington and California Army National Guard.	I Corps
10th Mountain Division	Fort Drum, New York	2 infantry BCTs, 1 DIVARTY, 1 CAB and 1 sustainment brigade as well as the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain) of the Vermont Army National Guard and an associated Brigade Combat Team from the 36th Infantry Division	XVIII Airborne Corps
25th Infantry Division	Schofield Barracks, Hawaii	2 infantry BCTs (including the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Infantry Regiment of the Army Reserve), 1 airborne infantry BCT, 1 Stryker BCT, 1 DIVARTY, 1 CAB, and 1 sustainment brigade	I Corps
82nd Airborne Division	Fort Bragg, North Carolina	3 airborne infantry BCTs, 1 airborne DIVARTY, 1 CAB and 1 airborne sustainment brigade	XVIII Airborne Corps
101st Airborne Division	Fort Campbell, Kentucky	3 air assault infantry BCTs, 1 air assault DIVARTY, 1 CAB and 1 air assault sustainment brigade	XVIII Airborne Corps

Combat maneuver units aligned under other organizations
Name	Headquarters	Subunits	Subordinate to
2nd Cavalry Regiment	Rose Barracks, Vilseck, Germany	4 Stryker squadrons, 1 engineer squadron, 1 fires squadron and 1 support squadron	U.S. Army Europe
2nd Infantry Division	Camp Humphreys, South Korea	2 Stryker BCTs, 1 mechanized brigade from the ROK Army, 1 DIVARTY (under administrative control of 7th ID), 1 sustainment brigade, and a stateside ABCT from another active division that is rotated in on a regular basis	Eighth Army
173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team	Camp Ederle, Vicenza, Italy	3 airborne infantry battalions (including 1st Battalion, 143rd Infantry Regiment of the Texas Army National Guard), 1 airborne field artillery battalion, 1 cavalry squadron, 1 airborne engineer battalion, and 1 airborne support battalion	U.S. Army Europe

Combat maneuver units aligned under the Army National Guard, until federalized
Name	Locations	Subunits
28th Infantry Division	Pennsylvania, Ohio and Maryland	2nd Infantry BCT, 56th Stryker BCT and 28th ECAB
29th Infantry Division	Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and Florida	30th Armored BCT, 53rd Infantry BCT, 116th Infantry BCT, 29th CAB and 142nd Field Artillery Regiment
34th Infantry Division	Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Idaho	1st Armored BCT, 2nd Infantry BCT, 32nd Infantry BCT, 116th Cavalry BCT and 34th CAB
35th Infantry Division	Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma, Georgia, Arkansas, and Nebraska	33rd Infantry BCT, 39th Infantry BCT, 45th Infantry BCT and 35th CAB
36th Infantry Division	Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi	56th Infantry BCT, 72nd Infantry BCT, 155th Armored BCT, 256th Infantry BCT, and 36th CAB
38th Infantry Division	Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee	37th Infantry BCT, 76th Infantry BCT, 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment and 38th CAB
40th Infantry Division	Arizona, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington	29th Infantry BCT, 41st Infantry BCT, 79th Infantry BCT and 40th CAB
42nd Infantry Division	New York, New Jersey and Vermont	27th Infantry BCT, 44th Infantry BCT and 42nd CAB

For a description of U.S. Army tactical organizational structure, see: a U.S. context and also a global context.

Special operations forcesedit

United States Army Special Operations Command (Airborne) (USASOC):

Name	Headquarters	Structure and purpose
1st Special Forces Command (Airborne)	Fort Bragg, North Carolina	Manages seven special forces groups designed to deploy and execute nine doctrinal missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, direct action, counter-insurgency, special reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, information operations, counterproliferation of weapon of mass destruction, and security force assistance. The command also manages two psychological operations groups—tasked to work with foreign nations to induce or reinforce behavior favorable to U.S. objectives—a civil affairs brigade—that enables military commanders and U.S. ambassadors to improve relationships with various stakeholders via five battalions—a sustainment brigade—that provides combat service support and combat health support units via two battalions, various support/liaison elements, and Medical Role II teams—and an organic military intelligence battalion.
Army Special Operations Aviation Command	Ft. Bragg, North Carolina	Commands, organizes, mans, trains, resources, and equips Army special operations aviation units to provide responsive, special operations aviation support to special operations forces consisting of five units, including the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne).
75th Ranger Regiment	Fort Benning, Georgia	In addition to a regimental headquarters, a special troops battalion, and a military intelligence battalion, the 75th Ranger Regiment has three maneuver battalions of elite airborne infantry specializing in large-scale, joint forcible entry operations and precision targeting raids. Additional capabilities include special reconnaissance, air assault, and direct action raids seizing key terrain such as airfields, destroying or securing strategic facilities, and capturing or killing enemies of the Nation. The Regiment also helps develop the equipment, technologies, training, and readiness that bridge the gap between special operations and traditional combat maneuver organizations.
John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School	Ft. Bragg, North Carolina	Selects and trains special forces, civil affairs, and psychological operations soldiers consisting of five distinct units and the Directorate of Training and Doctrine.
1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta	Ft. Bragg, North Carolina	Commonly referred to as Delta Force, Combat Applications Group (CAG), "The Unit," Army Compartmented Element (ACE), or Task Force Green, SFOD–D is the U.S. Army's Tier 1 Special Mission Unit tasked with performing the most complex, classified, and dangerous missions directed by the National Command Authority. Under the control of Joint Special Operations Command, SFOD–D specializes in hostage rescue, counter-terrorism, direct action, and special reconnaissance against high-value targets via eight squadrons: four assault, one aviation, one clandestine, one combat support, and one nuclear disposal.