The United States Army is involved in a total organizational redesign of its combat and support units to better meet current and future operational requirements. This redesign effort, as well as associated rebalancing, stabilization, and cyclical readiness initiatives are deemed important by proponents as they are intended to sustain both the active and reserve Army through a potentially long term, manpower and resource intensive war on terror. The overall issue facing Congress is how well the Army's modularity program is progressing and what are some of the issues affecting this major redesign effort. Also of critical importance is the Army's ability to fund both the Future Combat System (FCS) program and its modularity program concurrently. Key potential oversight questions for the 110 th Congress can be summarized as follows: How will the Administration's proposed increase of 65 thousand soldiers impact the modularity program? Are some Brigade Combat Teams vulnerable to enemy armor? Is the Army's overly-optimistic in its ability to fully fund modularity and the Future Combat System (FCS)? How are the Army's rebalancing, stabilization, and cyclical readiness efforts progressing and what are their associated costs? How does the Army's Force Generation Model impact the manning and equipping of Army modular forces? The 110 th Congress's decisions on these and other related issues could have significant implications for U.S. national security, Army funding requirements, and future congressional oversight activities. This report addresses the U.S. Army's redesign of its current force structure, based on large divisions, into one based on smaller brigade-level modular brigade combat teams (BCTs). The Army maintains that by organizing around BCTs and Support Brigades, it will be able to "better meet the challenges of the 21 st century security environment and, specifically, jointly fight and win the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT)." Accordingly, the Army hopes that modularization will result in: At least a 30% increase in the combat power of the Active Component of the force; An increase in the rotational pool of ready units by at least 50%; Army operating forces that require less augmentation when deployed—reducing the requirement for ad hoc organizations; Creation of a deployable joint-capable headquarters and improvement of joint interoperability across all Army units; Force design upon which the future network centric developments [Future Combat System] can be readily applied; Reduced stress on the force through a more predictable deployment cycle: One year deployed and two years at home station for the Active Component; One year deployed and four years at home station for the Reserve Force; One year deployed and five years at home station for the National Guard Force; and Reduced mobilization times for the Reserve Component as a whole. With the Department of Defense's (DOD) January 19, 2007 announcement on increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps the Army currently plans to create the following numbers and types of BCTs in the active Army and Army National Guard (ANG): In 2005, the Army defined the roles, designs and numbers of support brigades to be developed. The modular support brigades consist of both single function and multi-functional designs. The Army's Multi-Functional Support Brigades include Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB): Consisting of between 2,600 to 2,700 personnel and a variety of Army aviation assets; Fires Brigade: Consisting of between 1,200 and 1,300 personnel, the Fires Brigade is to have a mix of cannon, rocket, and missile artillery systems and is to be able to employ Joint fires (Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force) as well; Combat Support Brigade (Maneuver Enhancement) (CSB (ME)): Consisting of 435 personnel, the CSB (ME) is to have engineer, military police, nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) defense, and air defense units assigned to it. In addition, the brigade could also have explosive ordnance disposal and civil affairs units assigned to it; Battlefield Surveillance Brigade: Consisting of 997 personnel, the Battlefield Surveillance Brigade is to consist of an intelligence battalion, support troops, and a long-range surveillance detachment. In addition, the brigade can be augmented with special forces units as well as additional unmanned aerial vehicles; and Sustainment Brigade: Consisting of 487 personnel, the Sustainment Brigade is to have medical, finance, human resources, ammunition, transportation, maintenance, and supply and service units. The Army currently plans to field the following numbers of Active, National Guard, and Reserve Multi-Functional Support Brigades as indicated in Table 2 . The Army also plans to create the following types of Functional Support Brigades in the active and reserve components: Air Defense; Engineer; Military Police; Chemical; Military Intelligence; Signal; Explosive Ordnance Disposal; Quartermaster; Medical; Logistics Regional Support Groups; Civil Affairs; and Psychological Operations. The Army has compiled a number of "lessons learned" about modular units in combat. Commanders maintain that modular BCTs are better in interacting with other service's tactical elements and that the permanent task organization of critical core components has eliminated "multiple bosses" thereby simplifying command and control. Modular BCTs have also exhibited a "significant increase in situational awareness for brigade commanders based on increased battle command systems." Commanders also provided favorable comments on the enhanced BCT staffs and organic combat support and service support elements within modular BCTs. Commanders also identified areas in need of improvement. Additional earthmoving capability was identified as a need as was more capability in the BCT's armed reconnaissance squadron to "fight for information." Commanders also maintain that additional intelligence analysis capability is needed in the BCTs and that BCTs lack organic engineer assault breaching and gap crossing capability. Of critical concern to commanders was the need for greater bandwidth capacity to support battle command systems. The Army plans to continue to evaluate lessons learned from combat experiences and to make changes to personnel, equipment, and force structure when appropriate. The Army has initiated changes for both the BCTs and modular support units in terms of force protection, navigational capability, physical site protection, as well as convoy security and improvised explosive device (IED) protection based on these "lessons learned" as well as independent analysis by other Army organizations. An Army study, conducted by the Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), reportedly concludes that modular infantry BCTs (IBCTs) and Stryker BCTs (SBCTs)—which constitute over 60% of the Army's combat brigades—lack tactical lethality during the early deployment phase of expeditionary operations. The Army Study—"Close-Combat Lethality Line-of-Sight Capabilities-Based Assessment"—supposedly maintains that IBCTs and SBCTs as currently organized and equipped are unable to: Achieve desired effects against main battle tanks equipped with active protection systems; Achieve desired effects against main battle tanks with or without explosive reactive armor at extended ranges out to 6,600 meters; Identify vehicle targets up to 5,500 meters from the shooting platform; and Achieve desired effects against other armored vehicles with active protection systems. Proposed solutions to these deficiencies include modifying tactics such as employing volley fires to overwhelm active protection systems and developing better equipment to increase the lethality of IBCTs and SBCTs. According to the Army, by the end of FY2006 they had converted 31 active BCTs and during the year, another four active BCTs began modular conversion. The Army National Guard (ARNG) continued the modular conversion of seven BCTs begun in FY2005 and started the conversion of nine additional BCTs in FY2006 for a total of 16 BCTs converting. During FY2006, a total of 45 multi-functional support brigades and 86 functional support brigades were converting in the active and reserve components. During FY2007, the active Army will have 35 BCTs and another three BCTs converting. On January 19, 2007, DOD announced that the modularization of two BCTs would be accelerated, bring the number of BCTs undergoing modular conversion in FY2007 to five. These two accelerated BCTs are expected to be ready to deploy to Iraq in FY2008 if required. In FY2007, the ARNG will begin the modular conversion of nine more BCTs and by the end of FY2007, an additional 13 multi-functional support brigades will be converted. During FY2007, the functional support brigades will increase by four in the active component and 6 in the ARNG. From FY2008-FY2013, the Army plans to convert the following units to the modular design: The President's FY2007 Budget Request included $6.6 billion for modularity in FY2007 and an additional $34 billion between FY2008 and FY2001 but modularity costs are spread among a wide variety of Army programs, which makes it difficult for many to characterize an exact figure for Army modularity. The FY2007 National Defense Authorization Act ( P.L. 109-364 ) added $548.9 million for Army modularity, and directed it to be spent on M-1 Abrams, M-2 and M-3 Bradley, and M-113 armored personnel carrier refurbishment. In addition, the Army was directed to develop a multi-year procurement strategy for the Abrams tank and the Bradley fighting vehicle and to also provide Congress with the full costs of Army modularity. Army cost estimates have increased significantly since January 2004 when the Army initially estimated that it would cost $20 billion from FY2004-FY2011 to increase the number of active Army brigade combat teams from 33 to 48. According to GAO in July 2004, the Army added $ 8 billion to reorganize the reserve component—bringing the estimated cost for the entire force to $28 billion.