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Military Reserves

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Members of a country's military reserves pursue full-time civilian careers and are not on active duty, though they may be called upon at times of emergency. RAND provides military and political decisionmakers with objective research and recommendations on how to attract, train, and maintain an effective military reserve force.

Commentary
Supporting the Mental Health Needs of National Guard and Reserve Members
Over one million U.S. military service members are members of the National Guard or reserves. These troops are being tested like never before, but they do not receive the same physical and mental health care coverage provided to their active-duty counterparts. It may be time to explore policy solutions to ensure that these service members have access to high-quality mental health care.
Sep 22, 2021
Report
Soldier Preferences and Retention Effects of Changes in Army Reserve Training Requirements
Soldiers in the U.S. Army Reserve have traditionally been required to attend 39 days of training per year. However, across the readiness cycle, units may have their requirements changed with minimal notice. How do changes in training requirements affect a soldier's interest in staying in the Reserves?
Nov 16, 2021

Explore Military Reserves

Report
National Guard Youth ChalleNGe: Program Progress in 2021–2022
The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program serves young people ages 16 to 18 experiencing difficulty in traditional high school. This report covers the program years 2021–2022 and is the seventh in a series on this quasi-military residential program.
Jun 1, 2023
Report
Supporting the U.S. Space Force Single-Component Structure: Impediments for Members Transitioning Between Full-Time and Part-Time Participation
U.S. Space Force leadership envisions a service in which Guardians transition easily between full- and part-time service. Five impediments discussed in this report make it unnecessarily difficult to make these transitions between types of service.
May 1, 2023
Report
Army Full-Time Support Processes: Considerations for Enhancing Common Understanding, Transparency, and Unity of Purpose
The Full-Time Support program's purpose is often misunderstood or mischaracterized in terms of how it relates to strategic guidance. The Army should work on developing a more productive and useful way of thinking about and assessing this program.
Apr 26, 2023
Report
Improving Transition Assistance for Reserve Component Members
The authors identify unmet needs for transitioning reserve component members, assess the Transition Assistance Program (TAP), and recommend ways to improve TAP's effectiveness in addressing reserve component members' transition needs.
Apr 12, 2023
Report
Organizing and Training Airfield Operations Capabilities for Emerging Expeditionary Operations: Potential Courses of Action
The authors identify ways to enable the airfield operations (AO) career fields to respond to the needs created by the Dynamic Force Employment concept and the USAF implementation of Agile Combat Employment.
Mar 16, 2023
Report
Options for Improving Strategic Utilization of the Air Reserve Component for Sustained Active-Duty Missions
The authors analyze how statutes, personnel policies, and resource policies constrain how Air Reserve Component personnel are utilized to perform frequent or long-term active component operational requirements.
Sep 19, 2022
Report
National Guard Youth ChalleNGe: Program Progress in 2020–2021
The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program serves young people experiencing difficulty in traditional high school. This report documents program trends in 2020–2021 and presents analyses on the Job ChalleNGe program.
Aug 22, 2022
Research Brief
Setting Goals for Success: An Assessment of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program's Post-Residential Action Plan Process
Cadets in the National Guard Youth Challenge (ChalleNGe) Program use a goal-setting process called the Post-Residential Action Plan (P-RAP) to navigate career and life choices. The authors analyzed the P-RAP process across multiple ChalleNGe sites.
Aug 10, 2022
Report
Forecasting End Strength in the U.S. Army Reserve: An Integrated Modeling Concept
Personnel and career management are critical to a well-trained U.S. Army Reserve (USAR). The authors examined existing modeling tools and developed a detailed plan for combining outputs from the tools to enable USAR to forecast 24-month end strength.
Jul 18, 2022
Report
Resources Required to Meet the U.S. Army Reserve's Enlisted Recruiting Requirements Under Alternative Recruiting Goals, Conditions, and Eligibility Policies
Several U.S. Army resources and policies work together to produce recruits. The authors present a model—the Reserve Recruiting Resource Model—designed to optimize resources and policies to achieve future Army Reserve recruiting goals.
Jul 14, 2022
Report
End-of-Pilot Assessment of the U.S. Army's Consolidated Recruiting Program
The Army conducted a pilot test of a program in which recruiters were authorized to recruit individuals into any of its three components. This analysis found that the program's effects were small and not statistically meaningful.
Jun 15, 2022
News Release
More Evidence Needed to Support Performance Goals of Current Army Combat Fitness Test; Women, Other Groups Pass the ...
As the U.S. Army rolls out its Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT), more evidence is needed to prove that all six test events adequately predict performance on combat tasks or reduce injury risks and that combat task performance is a necessary metric for all Army jobs.
Mar 23, 2022
Report
Evidence to Support New Army Combat Fitness Test Is Incomplete
The U.S. Army has a new fitness test for the first time in 40 years. A review finds that more evidence is needed to prove that all six test events adequately predict performance on combat tasks and that combat standards are a necessary metric for all Army jobs. Women, National Guard troops, and others are passing the test at lower rates.
Mar 23, 2022
Report
Developing Outcome Measures for the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program
The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe is a residential program for youth experiencing difficulties in traditional high school. This capstone report describes some of RAND's research and analyses on the ChalleNGe program from late 2017 through mid-2020.
Mar 2, 2022
Report
Payment of the Full Rate of Special and Incentive Pays to Members of the Reserve Components
In this report, the authors consider the feasibility and advisability of paying eligible part-time members of the reserve component the same full monthly rate of special and incentive pays that full-time active component members receive.
Feb 9, 2022
Report
What Are the Skills Required to Obtain a Good Job? An Analysis of Labor Markets, Occupational Features, and Skill Training for the Youth ChalleNGe Program
The authors of this report identify a set of common skills among high-paying, growing occupations that do not require a bachelor's degree and describe how to incorporate such broader skills into the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program curriculum.
Feb 4, 2022
Report
Goal-Setting to Support Cadet Success: Insights and Recommendations for the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program
The National Guard Youth Challenge Program uses the Post-Residential Action Plan to assist at-risk youth with identifying and achieving life goals. The authors examined various approaches to fostering adolescents' goal-setting success.
Dec 20, 2021
Report
Behavioral Health Care for National Guard and Reserve Service Members from the Military Health System
There are differences in Military Health System behavioral health care access and quality between reserve- and active-component personnel and between reserve-component personnel who live far from military treatment facilities and those who do not.
Sep 7, 2021

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RAND Topic:
Military Reserves

Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Kelly Atkinson

Political Scientist

Kelly Atkinson (she/her) is a political scientist at the RAND Corportation. Her research interests include human security, international security, gender policy, the Women Peace and Security policy agenda, diversity equity and inclusion, childcare, and military personnel readiness issues. She…
Stephen Dalzell

Senior Political Scientist

Steve Dalzell (he/his) is a senior political scientist at RAND. His current research focuses on military personnel management and readiness, particularly as they relate to the Reserve Components. Dalzell's other interests include security cooperation, military chaplains, urban security, and…

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