Individual Ready Reserve - Callup Authority and Activation

Callup Authority and Activation

"Presidential Reserve Callup Authority" (PRCA) is a provision of a public law (US Code, Title 10 (DOD), section 12304) that provides the President a means to activate, without a declaration of national emergency, not more than 200,000 members of the Selected Reserve and the Individual Ready Reserve (of whom not more than 30,000 may be members of the Individual Ready Reserve), for not more than 400 days to meet the support requirements of any operational mission. Members called under this provision may not be used for disaster relief or to suppress insurrection. This authority has particular utility when used in circumstances in which the escalatory national or international signals of partial or full mobilization would be undesirable. Forces available under this authority can provide a tailored, limited-scope, deterrent or operational response, or may be used as a precursor to any subsequent mobilization.

When the President has declared a national emergency he has even broader authority to activate not more than 1,000,000 members of the Ready Reserve with no further limitation. The United States has been in a state of national emergency since September 14, 2011.

When activated by Presidential Reserve Callup Authority, soldiers are required to follow the activation instructions contained in Army Regulation 135-91 specifying that members of the IRR can be required to join an Army Reserve unit if they are statutorily obligated and have a skill needed by the Army. Reserve soldiers are normally obligated to serve up to two years active duty, a requirement that is waiverable by the individual soldier, mission constraints, or the needs of the Army. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), the portion of public law that primarily governs the military as a subset of the general population, is applicable to soldiers activated from the Individual Ready Reserve as of the date that their activating orders require them to report. This subjects them to the possibility of punishment under UCMJ for being Absent Without Leave (AWOL) if they choose to resist activation.