The United States Army is reducing the size of its force by roughly 24,000 troops as the military service continues to struggle to meet recruitment goals.
According to a new document on the structural transformation of the U.S. Army, the decrease in the size of military service is intended to position the Army to be better equipped to fight future wars. While the document outlined multiple ways the Army is planning to invest in a restructuring of the force, it claimed that force reductions were necessary.
“While making these investments and adding formations, the Army must also reduce force
structure to protect readiness in light of decreased end strength,” the Army stated. “The Army is currently significantly over-structured, meaning there are not enough soldiers to fill out existing units and
organizations.”
Fox News reported that a considerable portion of the jobs that will be eliminated by the Army were counter-insurgency positions that increased during the Iraq War and Afghanistan War. The Army noted that most of the positions are already empty and that the Army “is not asking current soldiers to leave.”
The Army added, “As the Army builds back end strength over the next few years, most installations will likely see an increase in the number of soldiers actually stationed there.”
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The Army’s plan includes the reduction of approximately 10,000 positions connected with counter-insurgency operations, 2,700 positions from units that are not regularly deployed, and 6,500 additional posts and training positions. Additionally, roughly 10,000 positions from cavalry squadrons, security force assistance brigades, infantry brigade combat teams, and Stryker brigade combat teams will be cut.
On the other hand, the Army’s plan also announced the addition of 7,500 troops for critical operations, such as counter-drone units, air-defense units, and five new task forces.
The Army’s plan to reduce the size of its military force comes amid persistent recruitment challenges that have resulted in the Army missing its recruitment goals over the past two years.
The Department of Defense previously reported that the Army, Navy, and Air Force fell short of their recruitment goals for Fiscal Year 2023, which ended in September. While the Army gained over 50,000 recruits, it was well short of its goal of 65,000 new recruits. According to The Associated Press, the Army also missed its Fiscal Year 2022 recruitment goal by roughly 15,000 troops.
The Army announced that while the current structure of the military service is designed to have 494,000 soldiers, the total number of active-duty soldiers is currently 445,000. Based on the restructuring plan, the Army is striving to achieve a goal of 470,000 active-duty troops by Fiscal Year 2029.
