Army Officer requirements for operational talent decline precipitously with increasing rank. While 80 percent of Junior Officers serve in operational billets, only 20 percent of Senior Leaders serve in operational billets. Yet despite this operational talent requirement inversion, Army development efforts tend to focus disproportionately on building operational talent. Moreover, career progression through the rank of General Officer tends to excessively favor officers who have spent most of

more »

... r career in operational billets. By opening additional opportunities for officers who serve outside of operational billets to reach senior leader ranks, and by exposing more officers to opportunities that develop non-operational talents, the Army can mitigate against talent gaps at senior ranks. This analysis employs discrete event simulation to quantify the extent to which attrition, promotion, and the dynamically changing need for two types of talent (operational and non-operational) impact the distribution of talent available across the Army's officer ranks. 2471 978-1-4577-2109-0/11/$26.00 ABSTRACT Army Officer requirements for operational talent decline precipitously with increasing rank. While 80 percent of Junior Officers serve in operational billets, only 20 percent of Senior Leaders serve in opera-tional billets. Yet despite this operational talent requirement inversion, Army development efforts tend to focus disproportionately on building operational talent. Moreover, career progression through the rank of General Officer tends to excessively favor officers who have spent most of their career in operational bil-lets. By opening additional opportunities for officers who serve outside of operational billets to reach senior leader ranks, and by exposing more officers to opportunities that develop non-operational talents, the Army can mitigate against talent gaps at senior ranks. This analysis employs discrete event simulation to quantify the extent to which attrition, promotion, and the dynamically changing need for two types of talent (operational and non-operational) impact the distribution of talent available across the Army's of-ficer ranks.