In light of some publicly voiced misconceptions regarding the Army's capacity to deploy additional soldiers to Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), RAND Arroyo Center was asked to assess the demands placed upon the Army by these deployments. Analyzing Department of Defense deployment data, Arroyo found that the Army has provided over 1 million troop-years to OIF and OEF, and that most active-duty soldiers now deployed to these operations are on their second or third tour. Those active-duty soldiers who have not yet gone to Iraq or Afghanistan typically fall into one of two categories: new soldiers, needing to complete training before deployment; and experienced soldiers, needed for other missions. The demand for active-duty soldiers in OEF and OIF would have exceeded supply under the Army's normal deployment policies, so the Army and the Department of Defense took several actions to increase supply: it increased the overall size of the active component; it reassigned soldiers from other assignments and missions to the pool of soldiers rotating to OEF and OIF; and it greatly increased the rate at which soldiers rotate to and from the wars. Despite these adaptations, the Army retains very limited unutilized capacity to deploy additional active-duty soldiers beyond the current troop levels in OEF and OIF.

Introduction. Purpose -- Data Sources / Demand for troops in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Cumulative troop-years contributed to OIF and OEF -- Active-duty troop-years deployed -- Active-duty assigned strength supporting cumulative deployments -- Yearly demand for active-duty soldiers -- The Army's cumulative deployed contribution increased steadily as soldiers returned to theater for repeated deployments -- Cumulative soldier time deployed exceeds cumulative deployed time of other services -- Deployment burden falls most heavily on the Army's warrants, noncommissioned officers, and the middle ranks of officers / Army deployment capacity and soldier deployment ratio. Army capacity to support troop demands: 2002 end strength -- BOG:Dwell ratio required to support deployment demands, 2003-2005 -- Soldiers assigned to "infrastructure" and "forces" -- Soldiers moved from "infrastructure" to "forces" -- DoD increased Army end strength and changed other demands -- BOG:Dwell ratio required to provide soldier numbers demanded, 2005-2009 / Mapping soldier flows into units and identifying soldiers not yet deployed. Analyses from USD (P&R) -- Illustration of the flow of soldiers from recruits to trained and ready soldiers -- Size of each pool -- Identify groups of trained and ready soldiers who have not yet deployed -- Distribution of not-yet-deployed soldiers by length of service -- Distribution of not-yet-deployed soldiers by military occupational specialty -- Distribution of not-yet-deployed soldiers by unit of assignment and military occupational specialty -- Answers to the research questions posed -- Army troop levels maintained in OIF and OEF -- Soldier BOG: Dwell ratios -- Soldiers not yet deployed / Appendix: Defense Manpower Data Center's personnel deployment accountability update.