Army slowing deployment cycle for busy armor units, assessing others

When the Army announced its Regionally Aligned Readiness and Modernization Model — or ReARMM — in 2020, the service’s top leaders argued it would improve soldiers’ quality of life by making their training and deployment cycles more predictable.

As originally designed, the force generation model called for a two-year cycle divided into three eight-month phases — modernization, training and mission. But experts and soldiers interviewed by think tanks feared it was inflexible and couldn’t account for inherent differences between unit types.

Now, the service is announcing changes to the model for armored units after an Army Times report revealed elevated suicide rates in some of those formations. Army leaders say they are exploring options for “tailoring” ReARMM for other types of units as well.