The Ministry of Defence has mobilised an extra 3,500 personnel, and put another 1,200 on notice to deploy in 48 hours, but it is still unclear exactly where they will be needed and deployed.
The preferred 'on call' arrangements, notice to deploy, period of overseas deployment and shift length are all identified.
The preferred 'on call' arrangements were for periods of 1 month while the majority needed between 6 and 24 hours notice to deploy.
The notice needed to deploy ranged from less than 6 hours for 22% (13/59) to 3 days for a similar number (22%, 13/59).
The notice needed to deploy in this survey ranged from less than 6 hours to 3 days, with the most common period required being 6 24 hours.
So in January 2005, the couple arrived at Fort Bragg, N.C., where after just four months, without notice, he received orders to deploy to Iraq, leaving her behind.
Not only are they unsuited to crushing counterinsurgencies and small bands of terrorists or irregular fighters, but mass armies are simply too cumbersome to deploy on short notice.
He said that army training would be reduced, but he didn't say which aspects of it were going to be cut and what impact that will have on the army's readiness to deploy at short notice.
A senior Army officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that 3,500 soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C., equipped with some 30 helicopters, were prepared to deploy on short notice if needed.
The EU is meant to have two "battle groups" of 1,500 men apiece ready to deploy at short notice, but it can barely muster one and none has ever been used.Pressure to make better use of dwindling resources is pushing governments to share costs and pool equipment.
The United Nations, it acknowledged, "does not wage war"; but its operations nevertheless had to "project credible force" and be ready to distinguish between victim and aggressor.Mr Brahimi's central recommendation was the creation of multinational brigades around the world ready to deploy at short notice.
