I wondered how the National Guards of various states gets their equipment. Obviously not frontline quality, but where and how do they get it? Does the Army use them and pass them down as they get older? Does the US Marines also supply equipment? And is there any real decision on which unit of the National Guard gets which equipment, or is it basically haphazard based on what's available to pass on? Or perhaps politics might play a role?

Almost everything in the military involves politics, which is why some things the military does doesn't make sense to someone or another depending on viewpoint. The below is what NG officers told me before 9/11.

The answers to your questions are basically "yes." To my understanding and knowledge, The Army ranks NG units in a pecking order of what they do with those deemed the best getting the first equipment. Not all equipment is old. Many NG logistic units do get new trucks and vehicles and helicopters just as active units. Some NG combat units also get new combat vehicles. One reason for this is that the usage will be less than an active unit, per se, and that NG units often train once-a-month on the same speciality compared to an active unit which has to learn all sorts of categories and thus wear out equipment sooner. Also, some states spend more money on NG units than others. The Army Reserve also gets its share of "hand me downs" too.

Unlike Active, NG units may get new trucks if they're a transport NG unit, meaning they get new equipment based on their MOS. But this doesn't mean with new trucks that they get new uniforms, body armor, guns, NVGs, radios, etc. Hence the media criticisms that NG units were unprepared for combat because they were. NG units aren't provided with all-encompassing new equipment as Active units.

Another is politics too. For instance, the Marines want a six-man armored combat truck with enclosed gun turret to replace the HMMWV. The Army wants a 4-man truck that can add-on armor and has no requirement for an enclosed gun turret. The reason for this is because the Army said you'll never want or need a NG armored car with guns during floods or fighting wildfires. Hence many NG units are more gear for disaster relief than actual combat missions just because a huge percentage of their job is homeland relief.

My .02---For the Marine Corps active duty's old gear goes to reserve. I imagine that the NG would then be nearly third in line for gear from active to reserve to NG. I would also say that it depends on the mission of the gear...Ex: and MLRS that is not needed by reserve would then go straight to a guard unit.

This came from a Buddy of mine..........
"I just received an email indicating that all National Guard units should begin planning to turn in all of their M35A2's to DRMO. They are cautioned to retain enough vehicles to provide for training and some semblance of mission effectiveness. The typical military and governmental proviso in the message stated "ARNGUS cannot tell us what we will be getting, nor when". Ahhhh, ya gotta love orders like that!! "

Looks like all the Deuce's are on the way out............... to be replaced by LMTV's.......

hey,
Our oldest son is in the IL.NG,and his equipment is brand new,about 6 months ago,he was issued a new helmet and flak vest(he brought them to the house,to show us),and a couple months ago ,he and his buddies went down,and picked up new Humvee's,his unit may not get the brand new items right away,he had received brand new camo green clothing,then a couple months later,was issued the new,digital pattern camo clothing(and didn't have to turn in the camo greens) .My understanding is the old(handy downs) go to the reserve,dont they train once a year? His unit trains at least one weekend a month,over the last 6 months,he's been away for two weeks at a time,quite afew times now,he's been up to Ft.McCoy ,couple times now,training with Humvee's,learning convoy escort,working with Humvee's equiped with .50 Cal. and TOW'S,and he spent three weeks in Poland,training with the Polish Army,back in Sept.,I can't recall my son ,ever mentioning that he/they receive older equip,next time I see/talk to him ,I'll ask.

Joe

The army as a whole prioritizes units by what is known as a FAD (Force Activity Designator). FAD's run from 1 to 5. FAD 1 is the highest priority, FAD 5 is the lowest priority. Your FAD designates where you are on the "pecking" list for new equipment regardles of if you are federal active duty forces, reserve or national guard unit.

Take an LMTV truck for example. A National Guard FAD 2 unit will receive an LMTV off of the assembly line before a federal active duty FAD 4 unit.

Up till probably the Desert Storm era to the mid or late 90's, it wasn't very common for National Guard units to receive brand new equipment. Prior to this period, everyone is correct a vast majority of National Guard and Reserve equipment was federal active duty forces hand me downs.

Mobilization of reserve component forces for Desert Storm showed the flaws in the original system (hand me downs). OIF/OEF magnified the equipment issues even further. Now, modernazation of National Guard and Reserve units is a DoD priority and National Guard and Reserve units are receiving new equipment right off the assembly lines.

I am an active duty soldier in the Missouri National Guard. We are currently going through new equipment fielding for several types of equipment. Over the last 6 months, the state has fielded about 1000 DAGR's (Defense Advanced GPS Receiver), about 50 HEMTT based PLS's, dozens of FMTV's in several variants, SINCGAR's (model F) just to name a few. All equipment has been brand new from the factory. The state recently received hundreds of new M240B machine guns and M16A4 rifles as well.

Let me know if you have additional questions.

Dont forget that back in the day the Army use to have round out NG units. I remember going to NC to train some . And heck there M-1a1's and Bradleys were newer and in better shape than ours.....They also had better chow!

The equipment priority is now based on deployment, not branch of service or AD/Res/NG. For my last deployment. We received all our new issue on our pre-deployment train up at Ft Dix NJ.

As a counterpoint, the Militia in Canada recieves completely new equiptment. This is done as soon as the regular force regiments have been supplied. So, there is a few months of lag when a new piece of kit is interoduced, but its all brand new kit. Sometimes special kit is purchased specifically for the militia such as the Cougar and Grizzly armoured fighting vehicles, leading to the humourous circumstance of the militia loaning kit to the regs, such as when the Grizzly was used in Bosnia in the early 90's .

i remember a ak ng unit when i was in iraq in 04-05 had nam era trucks man i felt bad for those guys