What This Field Means
Whether and how the unit can move from its normal location to perform a mission elsewhere.
This describes the unit’s inherent or documented ability to move and operate away from its normal base. It helps distinguish fixed headquarters, deployable formations, afloat commands, airborne organizations, distributed units, and expeditionary forces.
How to Read It Correctly
Deployability is not current readiness, present deployment status, strategic lift availability, or mission success. A deployable unit can be home-stationed, and a fixed unit can still support deployed operations.
Example
Fixed, deployable, afloat, airborne, distributed, or expeditionary.
Technical Specification
The database column is [USMIL-Unit].[Unit].[UnitDeployability]. Required mobility or deployability summary related to the controlled Mobility state dimension. Current values include narrative evidence beyond the canonical options.
Use the controlled Mobility State vocabulary for the normalized assertion and retain source-specific qualifications in evidence or relationship records. Do not infer deployability only from a unit’s mission name.
| Property | Definition or current value |
|---|---|
| Database column | UnitDeployability |
| Column order | 29 |
| SQL data type | nvarchar(128) |
| Kind of information | Ontology-controlled classification with a scalar Unit-table summary |
| Cardinality | Unit table: one scalar summary per row. Ontology dimension: multiple; time-varying: true. |
| Required | Yes |
| Database default | No database default |
| Key or relationship | None |
| Database check constraint | ([CurrentStatus]=N'Planned' OR [CurrentStatus]=N'Status unknown' OR [CurrentStatus]=N'Historical' OR [CurrentStatus]=N'Inactive' OR [CurrentStatus]=N'Current') |
| Live population | 9341 of 9341 Unit records (100%) |
| Distinct nonblank values in the live table | 1185 |
| Live profile measured | September 2, 2026, 20:43 UTC |
Allowed Values and Definitions
The complete active controlled vocabulary is listed below. The ontology is authoritative for normalized options. Narrative or legacy phrases found in the scalar Unit-table column are current data expressions, not additional approved options.
| Ontology property | Definition |
|---|---|
| Ontology dimension | Mobility state |
| Dimension number | 41 |
| Ontology definition | Fixed, deployable, afloat, airborne, distributed, expeditionary, or supported mobility. |
| Ontology cardinality | multiple |
| Changes over time | Yes |
| Active controlled options | 12 |
| Canonical option | Code | Plain-language definition | Technical definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown | unknown | The evidence reviewed so far does not establish a value. | No supported value is asserted; this is an evidentiary state, not a positive classification. |
| Not applicable | not-applicable | This question does not apply to this kind of unit or relationship. | The dimension is intentionally inapplicable to the subject type; it is not missing data. |
| Unresolved | unresolved | The unit is known, but the available evidence does not yet settle this particular point. | Confirms that resolution remains open after review without asserting a competing value. |
| Needs review | needs-review | The retained evidence needs additional review before a reliable value can be shown. | Places the assertion in a review-required disposition rather than accepting a substantive value. |
| Source conflict | source-conflict | Reliable sources disagree, so the guide preserves the disagreement instead of choosing one silently. | Records an unresolved conflict among retained sources and prevents false canonical certainty. |
| Fixed | fixed | Fixed means the organization is designed principally to perform its function at an established site rather than deploy as a unit. | Controlled mobility-state code 'fixed' in ontology Dimension 41. It describes an evidenced movement or basing characteristic and does not by itself assert readiness or current deployment. |
| Deployable | deployable | Deployable means the organization is designed and equipped to move from its normal station and operate elsewhere. | Controlled mobility-state code 'deployable' in ontology Dimension 41. It describes an evidenced movement or basing characteristic and does not by itself assert readiness or current deployment. |
| Afloat | afloat | Afloat means the organization’s normal mobility or operating basis is aboard commissioned vessels or other maritime platforms. | Controlled mobility-state code 'afloat' in ontology Dimension 41. It describes an evidenced movement or basing characteristic and does not by itself assert readiness or current deployment. |
| Airborne | airborne | Airborne means the organization is structured for delivery, insertion, or movement by air as a defining mobility characteristic. | Controlled mobility-state code 'airborne' in ontology Dimension 41. It describes an evidenced movement or basing characteristic and does not by itself assert readiness or current deployment. |
| Distributed | distributed | Distributed means the organization is designed to operate through separated elements or sites connected as one functioning organization. | Controlled mobility-state code 'distributed' in ontology Dimension 41. It describes an evidenced movement or basing characteristic and does not by itself assert readiness or current deployment. |
| Expeditionary | expeditionary | Expeditionary means the organization is designed to establish and sustain operations away from permanent home infrastructure. | Controlled mobility-state code 'expeditionary' in ontology Dimension 41. It describes an evidenced movement or basing characteristic and does not by itself assert readiness or current deployment. |
| Another supported mobility state | another-supported-mobility-state | Another supported mobility state is used when authoritative evidence establishes a mobility condition not represented by the named standard choices. | Controlled catch-all code 'another-supported-mobility-state' in ontology Dimension 41. Use requires explicit source support; recurring concepts should receive a separately defined extension rather than accumulating as unexplained catch-all data. |
How the Live Unit Table Uses This Field
The scalar Unit-table column currently contains 1185 distinct nonblank expressions. The 20 most frequently used expressions are shown below; these are evidence-derived or legacy contents, not extra controlled options.
| Observed live expression | Live Unit records |
|---|---|
| Pending profile enrichment | 4213 |
| Historical deployability not established | 1316 |
| Deployability supported by unit type | 923 |
| Unknown after authoritative review | 380 |
| Deployability reviewed unknown from the retained source | 255 |
| Historical deployed task organization | 198 |
| Deployability supported by unit type; exact posture reviewed unknown | 77 |
| Operational or institutional organization | 47 |
| Organizational posture documented; exact deployability reviewed unknown | 34 |
| Organizational deployability or field posture reviewed unknown from the retained source | 24 |
| Operational cutter command | 23 |
| Historical deployability unresolved | 23 |
| Unknown pending source extraction | 22 |
| Source-period operational organization | 22 |
| Unresolved | 22 |
| Historical command; deployability not current | 20 |
| Established military organization | 20 |
| Deployed supporting-arms liaison and spotting team | 18 |
| Not established from current evidence | 17 |
| Operational organization; exact deployability reviewed unknown | 15 |
Missing, Unknown, and Conflicting Information
This column cannot be NULL in the Unit table. When the underlying fact is incomplete, the record must use an allowed explicit disposition or a supported evidence-derived statement. Required storage does not mean that every historical fact is known, and it never authorizes a guessed value.
The controlled uncertainty values are deliberately different: Unknown means evidence has not established a value; Unresolved means the question remains open after review; Needs review identifies work still requiring evaluation; Source conflict preserves disagreement among retained sources; and Not applicable means the dimension does not apply to the subject.
Connections to Other Fields
- Posture — How the unit is positioned for service—at home, forward, rotating, deployed, mobilized, or expeditionary.
- Home Station or Homeport — The installation, base, station, or port the unit normally calls home.
- Operating Location — A place where the unit is operating, deployed, detached, or rotating, which may be different from its home station.
- Capability Set — The military effects or services the unit can provide, which may span several different mission areas.
- Authorized Equipment — The equipment the unit is officially structured or authorized to possess.