STUDY ON FLEXIBLE READINESS

SEC. 362. STUDY ON FLEXIBLE READINESS (a) Flexible Readiness Defined.— For purposes of this section, the term “flexible readiness” means the allocation of resources and the adjustment of the readiness of military units based on— (1) the military threats to the United States; (2) the amount of warning time of potential hostilities; (3) the likelihood that particular military units will be used in a military action; and (4) the ability of the military departments to transport these units to the scene of a military action. (b) Sense of Congress.— (1) Under the concept of flexible readiness, the Secretary of Defense would keep certain high priority military forces, such as strategic forces, expeditionary forces, forward deployed forces, special operations forces, and selected intelligence units, at a high state of readiness. (2) It is the sense of Congress that flexible readiness has significant potential for being an effective and efficient method by which resources are allocated to military units and a larger military force structure may be preserved in the future than would be possible without flexible readiness. (c) Report.— Not later than March 15, 1991, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives a report containing a detailed description of the extent to which the concept of flexible readiness could be implemented by the Secretary in the Department of Defense. The report shall— (1) describe the extent to which resources have been and are currently allocated to active and reserve military units based on the projected threat, the likely warning time, and the projected deployment dates of units in a contingency; (2) identify the types and numbers of military units which should be maintained at the highest levels of readiness in the future; (3) analyze the effect of the use of flexible readiness on the future size of the active and reserve component force structure of the Armed Forces; and (4) analyze the costs, benefits, and difficulties of applying the concept of flexible readiness to all active forces and reserve component forces of the Armed Forces.