Military Roles and Missions: Past Revisions and Future Prospects

Roles and missions describe what the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps do. It is more accurate to speak of the functions assigned to them, but roles and emissions: took hold during debates that led to the National Security Act of 1947 and the term has been used ever since to encapsulate arguments about duplication of effort and which Service has the right to acquire and operate various platforms and weapons. This paper posts that arguments about military roles and missions are a manifestation of the conflict between the President in his role as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and the Congress empowered by the Constitution to raise and support Armies, provide and maintain a Navy, and make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces. The original document contains color images.