Military Active and Reserve Component Mix: The Grey Space

The United States Air Force consists of two primary components: regular active and reserves. As a result of different deployment schedules and skill levels of personnel, these components differ in their associated costs and employee abilities. Although active-component service members are full-time employees, the majority of reserve members serve in the military on a part-time basis until activated by volunteering or mobilization. Before retiring from military service, active-component members often transition to the reserve component, resulting in a higher level of experience in these units. This enables the Air Force to retain experienced personnel at relatively lower costs and preserve its operational capability. Military analysts frequently assess policies regarding funding, resource allocation, and the balance between components using the Total Force Enterprise Analytic Framework. The five drivers of this framework are wartime demand and requirements, weapon system inventory, manpower inventory, employment policies, and cost. To simplify the evaluation and communication of component force mix options, we developed a graphical representation of the five-driver framework, which we called the grey space. This approach creates a visual representation of feasible options subject to the trade-off between cost and supply in terms of force structure size and component mix. Our depictions have enabled political constituents to better understand the feasible region. The United States Army and others analyzing the military have also adopted this approach. In this article, we discuss this graphical approach and its applications.