National Guard launches reorganization. (Security Beat).

The National Guard's plan to consolidate its three headquarters in leach state into one "joint force headquarters" will enable the organization to improve the readiness of its operational units, according to Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau.

By Oct. 1, the Guard plans to reduce its number of headquarters units in the 54 states and territories from 162 to 54, Blum told a Pentagon news briefing. Currently, he said, every state, the District of Columbia and each of the other territories has separate Army National Guard and Air Guard headquarters, plus a state headquarters.

"That is just too excessive," Blum said. "And it is not in keeping with the way that the Department of Defense needs [...] to deal with emerging realities."

The three headquarters will be consolidated into one joint force headquarters. "We fight jointly," Blum said. "We need to train and operate on a daily basis in a joint environment, so that we can make that transition very quickly.

"After all, our symbol is the Minuteman," Blum noted. "The Minuteman symbolizes the transition from a citizen to a soldier in minutes. And frankly, with the kind of threats that we are facing today, that will be a necessary capability for the National Guard."

Blum said he plans to redirect the money and personnel freed by the consolidation to meet readiness shortfalls. "The biggest readiness shortfall for the Army and Air National Guard is in our manning," he explained. "We need to push our human resources to where the readiness requirements really are crying out for help."

Among the units slated for expansion, Blum said, are the Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams. There are now 32 such teams, and Congress and the Defense Department "are working furiously to ensure that each ... state and territory has at least one ... in the near future," he said.