Washington——

The U.S. Army is cutting its force size by about 24,000 troops, or nearly 5%, and reorganizing it to better prepare for the next major war, as the service grapples with a recruitment shortfall and an inability to bring in enough soldiers to fill the ranks. vacancy. All work.

The cuts will target mostly positions that are already vacant rather than actual soldiers, including counterinsurgency-related positions that proliferated during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but are less needed now. About 3,000 of the cuts will come from Army Special Operations Forces.

But at the same time, the plan will also add about 7,500 troops in other key missions, including air defense and counter-drone units, as well as five new task forces around the world to enhance cyber, intelligence and long-range strike capabilities.

Army Secretary Kristen Warmus said she and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George are working to reduce the number of open or excess slots.

“We are moving away from counterterrorism and counterinsurgency. We want to be ready for large-scale combat operations,” Warmus told reporters on Tuesday. “So we looked at what force structures might be more relevant to counter-insurgency, like the parts that we no longer need.”

George added that Army leaders conducted extensive analysis to select where to make cuts.
“The things that we don’t want in our formation are actually the things that we don’t think will allow us to be successful on the battlefield going forward,” he said.

According to an Army document, the service is “severely overstructured” and does not have enough soldiers to fill vacancies in existing units. The statement said the layoffs are a “space” not a “face” and the Army will not ask soldiers to leave the service.

Rather, the decision reflects the reality that the Army has been unable to fill thousands of open positions for years. While the Army is currently structured to have a maximum of 494,000 soldiers, the total number of active-duty soldiers is approximately 445,000. According to the new plan, the goal is to introduce enough troops to reach the level of 470,000 troops within the next five years.

The planned reforms come two decades after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which forced the Army to rapidly and significantly expand its personnel to fill out the brigades sent to the front lines. These include large-scale counterinsurgency missions fighting al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the Islamic State group.

Over time, the military’s focus has shifted toward great power competition from adversaries such as China and Russia, as well as threats from Iran and North Korea. The war in Ukraine demonstrates the need for greater emphasis on air defense systems and high-tech capabilities to use and counter airborne and sea-based drones.

Army leaders said they took a close look at all of the service’s job specialties to find where cuts need to be made. They also looked at ongoing efforts to modernize the Army with new high-tech weapons to determine where additional forces should be concentrated.

Under the plan, the Army would cut about 10,000 engineering positions and similar positions related to counterinsurgency missions. Another 2,700 will come from units that deploy infrequently and can be reduced, and 6,500 will come from various training and other positions.

About 10,000 positions will also be cut from cavalry squadrons, Stryker brigade combat teams, infantry brigade combat teams and security force assistance brigades used to train foreign troops.

The changes represent a major shift in the Army’s preparation for large-scale combat operations against more sophisticated enemies. But they also highlighted the serious recruiting challenges facing all services.

The Navy, Army and Air Force all missed their recruiting goals in the last fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, while the Marine Corps and the smaller Space Force did. The Army has recruited more than 50,000 new recruits, well below its publicly stated “stretch goal” of 65,000.

The Army also fell short of its recruiting target of 15,000 last fiscal year. The target that year was 60,000.

In response, the service overhauled its recruitment last fall to focus more on young people studying at university or looking for work early in their careers. It is assembling a new corps of professional recruiters rather than relying on randomly assigned soldiers.

Discussing the changes at the time, Wormuth admitted that the service’s recruitment situation had been “going on for many years” and “much longer than people might imagine just from the headlines of the last 18 months”. She said the service has not met annual targets for new enlisted contracts since 2014.