Editing United States Army (section)

===Structure===
{{main|Structure of the United States Army}}
{{see also|Transformation of the United States Army}}
{{see also|Reorganization plan of the United States Army}}
[[File:1-175 INF Trains at Fort Dix.jpg|thumb|U.S. Army soldiers of the 1st Battalion, [[175th Infantry Regiment (United States)|175th Infantry Regiment]], Maryland Army National Guard conducting an urban cordon and search exercise as part of the army readiness and training evaluation program in the mock city of Balad at [[Fort Dix]], [[New Jersey]]]]
[[File:Ramadi august 2006 patrol.jpg|thumb|U.S. soldiers from the [[6th Infantry Regiment (United States)|6th Infantry Regiment]] taking up positions on a street corner during a foot patrol in [[Ramadi]], [[Iraq]]]]
[[File:1 CAV DIV charge.jpg|thumb|right|The [[1st Cavalry Division (United States)|1st Cavalry Division's]] combat aviation brigade performing a mock charge with the horse detachment]]
[[File:Army mil-54118-2009-10-27-091030big.jpg|thumb|[[Special Forces (United States Army)|U.S. Army Special Forces]] soldiers from the [[3rd Special Forces Group (United States)|3rd Special Forces Group]] patrolling a field in the Gulistan district of [[Farah Province|Farah]], Afghanistan]]

See [[Structure of the United States Army]] for a detailed treatment of the [[Structure of the United States Army#History|history]], [[Structure of the United States Army#Active and reserve components|components]], [[Structure of the United States Army#Administrative|administrative and operational structure]] and the [[Structure of the United States Army#Branches and functional areas|branches and functional areas]] of the Army.

The U.S. Army is made up of three components: the active component, the Regular Army; and two reserve components, the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve. Both reserve components are primarily composed of part-time soldiers who train once a month – known as [[Battle Assembly|battle assemblies]] or unit training assemblies (UTAs) – and conduct two to three weeks of annual training each year. Both the Regular Army and the Army Reserve are organized under [[Title 10 of the United States Code]], while the National Guard is organized under [[Title 32 of the United States Code|Title 32]]. While the Army National Guard is organized, trained, and equipped as a component of the U.S. Army, when it is not in federal service it is under the command of individual state and territorial governors. However, the [[District of Columbia National Guard]] reports to the U.S. president, not the [[Mayor of the District of Columbia|district's mayor]], even when not federalized. Any or all of the [[National Guard of the United States|National Guard]] can be federalized by presidential order and against the governor's wishes.<ref>''Perpich v. Department of Defense'', 496 U.S. 334 (1990)</ref>

The U.S. Army is led by a civilian [[United States Secretary of the Army|secretary of the Army]], who has the statutory authority to conduct all the affairs of the army under the authority, direction, and control of the [[United States Secretary of Defense|secretary of defense]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2008-title10/pdf/USCODE-2008-title10-subtitleB-partI-chap303-sec3013.pdf|title=10 U.S.C. 3013 |access-date=2 May 2016}}</ref> The [[Chief of Staff of the United States Army|chief of staff of the Army]], who is the highest-ranked military officer in the army, serves as the principal military adviser and executive agent for the secretary of the Army, i.e., its service chief; and as a member of the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]], a body composed of the service chiefs from each of the four military services belonging to the Department of Defense who advise the [[president of the United States]], the secretary of defense and the [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]] on operational military matters, under the guidance of the [[Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff|chairman]] and [[Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff|vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2008-title10/pdf/USCODE-2008-title10-subtitleB-partI-chap305-sec3033.pdf|title=10 U.S.C. 3033|access-date=2 May 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2008-title10/pdf/USCODE-2008-title10-subtitleA-partI-chap5-sec151.pdf|title=10 U.S.C. 151|access-date=2 May 2016}}</ref> In 1986, the [[Goldwater–Nichols Act]] mandated that operational control of the services follows a chain of command from the president to the secretary of defense directly to the [[Unified Combatant Command|unified combatant commanders]], who have control of all units in their geographic or functional area of responsibility, thus the secretaries of the military departments (and their respective service chiefs underneath them) only have the responsibility to organize, train and equip their service components. The army provides trained forces to the combatant commanders for use as directed by the secretary of defense.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2008-title10/pdf/USCODE-2008-title10-subtitleA-partI-chap6-sec162.pdf|title=10 U.S.C. 162|access-date=2 May 2016}}</ref>

In 2013, the army shifted to six geographical commands that align with the six geographical unified combatant commands (CCMD):

* [[Third United States Army|United States Army Central]] headquartered at [[Shaw Air Force Base]], South Carolina<ref name=":2" />
* [[Fifth United States Army|United States Army North]] headquartered at [[Fort Sam Houston]], Texas<ref name=":3" />
* [[United States Army South]] headquartered at Fort Sam Houston, Texas<ref name=":4" />
* [[United States Army Europe]] and Africa headquartered at [[Clay Kaserne]], Wiesbaden, Germany<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.europeafrica.army.mil/Mission-History/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210106080104/https://www.europeafrica.army.mil/Mission-History/|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 January 2021|title=U.S. Army Europe & Africa Mission & History|website=europeafrica.army.mil|access-date=July 10, 2024}}</ref>
* [[United States Army Pacific Command|United States Army Pacific]] headquartered at [[Fort Shafter]], Hawaii<ref name=":1" />

The army also transformed its base unit from [[Division (military)|divisions]] to [[brigade]]s.<!-- The active army has now increased its combat brigades from 33 to 48, with similar increases in the National Guard and Reserve forces.--> Division lineage will be retained, but the divisional headquarters will be able to command any brigade, not just brigades that carry their divisional lineage. The central part of this plan is that each brigade will be modular, i.e., all brigades of the same type will be exactly the same and thus any brigade can be commanded by any division. As specified before the 2013 end-strength re-definitions, the three major types of brigade combat teams are:

* [[Brigade Combat Team#Heavy brigade combat team|Armored]] brigades, with a strength of 4,743 troops as of 2014.
* [[Stryker Brigade Combat Team|Stryker]] brigades, with a strength of 4,500 troops as of 2014.
* [[Brigade Combat Team#Infantry Brigade Combat Team|Infantry]] brigades, with a strength of 4,413 troops as of 2014.

In addition, there are combat support and service support modular brigades. Combat support brigades include [[Combat Aviation Brigade|aviation]] (CAB) brigades, which will come in heavy and light varieties, [[Fires Brigade|fires]] (artillery) brigades (now transforms to division artillery) and [[Battlefield Surveillance Brigade|expeditionary military intelligence brigades]]. [[Combat service support]] brigades include [[Sustainment Brigade|sustainment]] brigades and come in several varieties and serve the standard support role in an army.