troopdata_rebuild_reports returns a data frame containing DMDC reports on US military deployments.
Format
A data frame with one row per line of a report, including the following variables. A country code can appear on more than one row in a period, because the rows keep the locations and names the reports print (Japan and the Ryukyu Islands are both under 740, for example).
ccodeA numeric vector of Gleditsch and Ward country codes, with the package's own codes for territories and other locations the list does not cover. See
troopdata_rebuild_long.iso3cA character vector of ISO three character country codes.
countrynameA character vector of country names. They are tidied but not fully standardized, so a code can carry more than one name here and a name can differ from the one in
troopdata_rebuild_long(260 is"Germany"here).Locationholds the name as the report prints it.regionGeographic region, as in
troopdata_rebuild_long, but missing for a number of territories and historical locations.yearThe year of the observation.
monthThe month of the observation.
quarterThe quarter of the observation.
sourceThe DMDC report source of the observation.
LocationThe geographic location listed in the DMDC reports.
Total"Total number of US military personnel deployed to the host country.
Total Ashore"Total number of US military personnel deployed to the host country, excluding those at sea.
Total Afloat"Total number of US military personnel deployed to the host country, at sea.
Army TotalTotal number of Army personnel deployed to the host country.
Navy AshoreTotal number of Navy personnel deployed to the host country, excluding those at sea.
Navy Temporary AshoreTotal number of Navy personnel deployed to the host country, temporarily.
Navy OtherTotal number of Navy personnel deployed to the host country, in other capacities.
Marine Corps AshoreTotal number of Marine Corps personnel deployed to the host country, excluding those at sea.
Marine Corps AfloatTotal number of Marine Corps personnel deployed to the host country, at sea.
Air Force TotalTotal number of Air Force personnel deployed to the host country.
Navy AfloatTotal number of Navy personnel deployed to the host country, at sea.
Navy TotalTotal number of Navy personnel deployed to the host country.
Marine Corps TotalTotal number of Marine Corps personnel deployed to the host country.
troops_adThe total number of active duty US military personnel deployed to the host country.
army_adTotal number of active duty Army personnel deployed to the host country.
navy_adTotal number of active duty Navy personnel deployed to the host country.
marine_corps_adTotal number of active duty Marine Corps personnel deployed to the host country.
space_force_adTotal number of active duty Space Force personnel deployed to the host country.
air_force_adTotal number of active duty Air Force personnel deployed to the host country.
coast_guard_adTotal number of Coast Guard personnel deployed to the host country.
troops_afloatNavy and Marine Corps personnel afloat that a report attributes to the location, 1950 through 2007. Not included in
troops_ad. See Details.navy_afloatNavy personnel afloat that a report attributes to the location. Not included in
navy_ad.marine_corps_afloatMarine Corps personnel afloat that a report attributes to the location. Not included in
marine_corps_ad.Macro LocationThe geographic location listed in the DMDC reports.
Army Active DutyTotal number of active duty Army personnel deployed to the host country.
Navy Active DutyTotal number of active duty Navy personnel deployed to the host country.
Marine Corps Active DutyTotal number of active duty Marine Corps personnel deployed to the host country.
Air Force Active DutyTotal number of active duty Air Force personnel deployed to the host country.
Coast Guard Active DutyTotal number of active duty Coast Guard personnel deployed to the host country.
Space Force Active DutyTotal number of active duty Space Force personnel deployed to the host country.
Total Active DutyTotal number of active duty US military personnel deployed to the host country.
Army National GuardTotal number of Army National Guard personnel deployed to the host country.
Army ReserveTotal number of reserve Army personnel deployed to the host country.
Navy ReserveTotal number of reserve Navy personnel deployed to the host country.
Marine Corps ReserveTotal number of reserve Marine Corps personnel deployed to the host country.
Air National GuardTotal number of Air National Guard personnel deployed to the host country.
Air Force ReserveTotal number of reserve Air Force personnel deployed to the host country.
Coast Guard ReserveTotal number of reserve Coast Guard personnel deployed to the host country.
Total Selected ReserveTotal number of reserve US military personnel deployed to the host country.
Army CivilianTotal number of Army civilian personnel deployed to the host country.
Navy CivilianTotal number of Navy civilian personnel deployed to the host country.
Marine Corps CivilianTotal number of Marine Corps civilian personnel deployed to the host country.
Air Force CivilianTotal number of Air Force civilian personnel deployed to the host country.
DOD CivilianTotal number of Department of Defense civilian personnel deployed to the host country.
Total CivilianTotal number of civilian personnel deployed to the host country.
Grand TotalTotal number of US military and civilian personnel deployed to the host country.
Value
Returns a data frame containing DMDC reports of US military deployments by location from 1950 through the latest report in this version of the package, March 2026.
Details
Before 2008 troops_ad, navy_ad and marine_corps_ad hold personnel ashore
for every location, the United States included. The reports for 1950 through 2007 count Navy
and Marine Corps personnel afloat separately, and attribute some of them to a location: to the
country of the nearest port or the country whose line they are printed on (1953-1976), and,
for the fleet in home waters, to the United States (1950, 1953-2007; from 1968 the reports give
that figure for the United States and its territories together). Those are in
troops_afloat, navy_afloat and marine_corps_afloat, beside the ashore
figures and not inside them. A zero there means a report that lists personnel afloat by
location has none for that one (1953-1976); a missing value means the report gives no figure
for the location (everywhere but the United States in 1950 and 1977-2007, apart from 171
Marines afloat at Cuba in 1950; the years 1951 and 1952; and everything from 2008). For 1954-1956 the figure also holds mobile units temporarily
based ashore, which those three reports do not separate.
Everyone afloat is also carried once, worldwide, in a location named "Afloat"
(ccode 10200, no ISO code, region "Afloat"), with values for 1950 and 1953
through 2007. It is not a country, and it includes the personnel the three afloat columns
attribute to locations: troops_ad added up over every row, that one included, counts
everyone the data place somewhere once, and adding the afloat columns to it as well would
count those personnel twice. (It is still below the worldwide total a report prints, which
also includes the personnel it lists under no location.) get_troopdata handles this through its afloat argument, which
leaves the attributed personnel out of the locations, adds them in, or returns them separately,
and adjusts the "Afloat" location to match. From September 2008 the DMDC reports count a
ship's crew at its home port, inside the state or country figure, and there is no afloat figure,
so the ashore Navy figures for countries and states that are home ports step up between 2007
and 2008.
The reports did not keep to that from December 2015 to December 2017. They list 77,120 personnel under "Unknown" in the United States block in December 2015, and between 88,500 and 104,703 in each report from March 2016 to December 2017 under "Armed Forces Europe", "Armed Forces Pacific" and "Armed Forces the Americas", nearly all of them Navy. Those personnel cannot be traced to a state or a country and are in none of the rows here, so the United States figures are lower in those quarters and return in March 2018.
The derived columns, whose names are in lower case, follow that rule. The columns that carry a
report's own figures, such as Total, Total Afloat, Navy Afloat and
Navy Other, are left as the report prints them; navy_afloat is built from
Navy Afloat or Navy Other, whichever the report of that year uses (the United
States row, which is assembled from several lines, aside). For December 2022, March 2023 and June 2023 the Army reported nothing: the
Army columns and troops_ad are missing on those rows and the other services are as reported.
The United States row is the exception. It is not a line of a report (from 2008 it is the sum
of the state lines), and for those three quarters it carries a fixed Army figure of 404,114, a
total built on it, and zeros rather than missing values in the Army guard and reserve columns
and the totals that include them. troopdata_rebuild_long fills the Army figures
for those quarters in equal steps between September 2022 and September 2023 instead, so the
two differ for the United States there.
In 46 rows of December 2021, March 2022 and June 2022 the total a report prints, which is
what troops_ad holds here, is lower than the sum of that row's service columns.
troopdata_rebuild_long uses the sum.
The June 2023 report prints part of its overseas list one row low: the six civilian columns
from Montenegro to the end of the list, and the Navy Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, Air
National Guard, Air Force Reserve and Coast Guard Reserve columns from Morocco to Wake Island.
Each of those lines holds the figures of the location above it, so Qatar shows Puerto Rico's
2,201 civilians and Puerto Rico shows 7. The rows here are as published.
troopdata_rebuild_long reads those figures from the right line.