Post-Cold War PERSTEMPO policies and challenges : an examination of the Baseline Engagement Force Assessment and Model

• Main Author: Grasdock, Wayne G.
• Other Authors: Doyle, Richard B.
• Language: en_US
• Published: Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/8832

Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. === This thesis addresses policy and analytical challenges associated with the post-Cold War personnel tempo (PERSTEMPO). It examines a study conducted by the Joint Staff called the Baseline Engagement Force (BEF) assessment The majority of the data were obtained from the Force Structure, Resources, and Assessment Directorate (J-8) of the Joint Staff. The BEF assessment determined the level of military effort required to support peacetime engagement demands and revealed that PERSTEMPO reporting among the Services is diverse in that reporting and tracking methods and concepts differ. Misunderstanding of reporting and tracking methods and concepts led to under- reporting of PERSTEMPO. Errors, by a factor of ten, consistently occurred when reporting PERSTEMPO to the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Another finding was that the current PERSTEMPO is placing heavy demands on the deployable pool, rather than the end strength. PERSTEMPO increases by twelve percent when the deployable pool is placed in the denominator when calculating deployment percentages The Assessment also revealed that there is no tool for the Services to conduct real time assessments of PERSTEMPO. To make these assessments, a Baseline Engagement Force Model was developed by the RAND Corporation and the Systems Research and Applications (SRA) Corporation for the Joint Staff This Model was designed to produce alternatives for reducing the impact of deployments on military members and to help determine policy regarding the capabilities of the unit deployment and personnel management process