Army’s Wormuth: Congress will soon hear plans to revamp force structure, trim SOF
“The Army is in a moment of transformation where we are really pivoting from [counterinsurgency] COIN and [counterterrorism] CT to large-scale combat operations: So, we've got to transform our force structure,” said Army Secretary Christine Wormuth.
By ASHLEY ROQUE
on October 03, 2023 at 4:01 PM
AUSA 2023 — Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Chief Gen. Randy George are planning to brief lawmakers on force structure changes prompted, in part, by recruiting woes and the pivot towards large-scale operations.
Ahead of next week’s Association of the United States Army conference in Washington, DC, the duo unveiled fiscal 2023 recruiting data today. When FY23 ended on Sept 30, the service met its end-strength of goal of 452,000 for active-duty soldiers thanks to stronger retention numbers. However, it was 10,000 recruits shy of its 65,000 “stretch goal” and from that 55,000 total, only about 4,600 people will ship out in FY24 as part of the delayed entry program.
While hitting that end-strength target is a plus for the Army, the active-duty force remains smaller than the 485,000 soldiers it had several years ago, and Wormuth and George are not banking on a quick bounce back to those figures. As such, they have been working on a people “night court” of sorts to decide how to make the most efficient use of the personnel available, and lawmakers are about to see that plan in the “very near future,” Wormuth said.
https://breakingdefense.com/2023/10/armys-wormuth-congress-will-soon-hear-plans-to-revamp-force-structure-trim-sof/
