The One to Ten Percent Rule for Mobilization

There are valid questions of what type and level of force the nation needs for any given period. I suggest several benchmarks based on the level of human resources needed:

One percent of total population should be available for military service in short order, regardless of composition in service or component. Given the WW2 benchmark, the nation should be able to go from one percent to ten percent in three years.


At the population that means three million in idle times, while serious war would require thirty million. In WW2 we fielded 100 combat divisions (Army and USMC) and 102 aircraft carriers of all sizes. There were twelve million in uniform in WW2 with a population of 120 millions (e.g. 10%)

As to composition, at base level the defense of the Continental U.S. alone can be done with a well trained Guard and Reserve force, while the needs of the defense of the trade by sea requires a standing naval capability


It is the need to project force overseas, and to deal with extant threats overseas, that standing forces are needed. In between big wars, there is a need for soft power integrated with political, economic, social as well as firepower is needed. Once a big one starts, the need for more firepower and logistics changes the complexion of forces, and both must be planned for, with those forces not needed forward are kept in reserve."

Comparison of weaponry from age to age doesn't impact on how many people are employed. Were that so, the entire combined Confederate and Union forces could be defeated by a Marine Expeditionary Unit (a division sized force with it's own air and sea forces.). One Apache gunship could have swept the field at Gettysburg. A single Raptor could have wiped out the Japanese fleet with fuel to spare. That doesn't mean the our defense needs could be met by a Raptor and a Marine division.........

The Range of weaponry hasn't affected the reaction time for a nation to react. Consider the days of the Viking raiders whose appearance out of the morning fog coming over the surf was all the warning that the local castle, town or monastery would get .... minutes. Cities kept their gates locked at night to defend against a sudden assault, the likes of which happened all too often. Before radar, the firs sight of an invading force was the appearance of the fleet as it deployed to begin bombardment .... minutes, maybe hours. Even with advanced warning before the age of the telegraph, it often took days to spread that warning.........

We don't have the industrial base we had in the Twentieth Century and that is a major limiting factor on our mobilization in terms of material, but not in terms of manpower. It means that, like a lot of nations in the past, meant that the invading hordes would be met with staves and pitchforks. ........

Do we have the time? Yes, unless the invaders come from outer space with technology to match. There is no nation with sufficient force in place or within less time to mobilize than we, that could cross one of two oceans or invade from Mexico or Canada. The creation of such force anywhere could not take place without considerable advance notice, of sufficient time for the US to counter it ... should we chose. ......

The threat to the US is to it's Constitution, not a piece of dirt nor of a bunch of people except as it relates to changing the Constitution, which requires only 13 states to preserve. One must consider what parts of the continental US must stay under US control before the US would consider surrender. For the sake of simplicity, one could break down the US into six zones: The Union, the Pacific Coast, the Mississippi, the Confederacy, the Great Planes, and the Mountains, in order of importance. The nation could be still operation with three of these with one of the first three. It gets to be a problem if there are large non-contiguous areas. The geographic center of gravity is St. Louis which if controlled by a force marching from any direction is in a position to over-whelm the rest. ....

By the time any force gets big enough to launch such an attack, we would be well past staves and pitchforks. And through whatever ad hoc coastal defense force we could stamp out of the ground/water/

The option of surrender to an overwhelming nuclear or death ray threat, only depends on our own capability to annihilate someone else's population centers.