Personnel cuts and force redesign ahead for Army special operations
By Todd South
Nov 1, 04:11 PM
Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha, 7th Special Forces (Airborne), executes a Demo and live fire exercise at Camp “Bull” Simons , Fla., June 29, 2023. (Spc. Christopher Sanchez/Army)
The Army will cut as many as 3,000 positions in Army special operations forces despite pushback from key leaders in the SOF community and members of Congress.
“There will be cuts to Army SOF,” Chris Maier, assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict said Tuesday at the National Defense Industrial Association’s 34th annual symposium on the topic. “The Army’s in a tough place, not only from recruiting…but they’re trying to transition to a different fight as we all are, and I think one of the impacts of that is requests by the Army to cut some of the Army special operations forces.”
Army Times reported in mid-October that many of the cuts would be to unfilled billets within U.S. Army Special Operations Command and would eliminate as much as 10% of the positions in that command.
Officials at the symposium noted that many of the cuts to both positions and actual personnel will come at the expense of support and enabling jobs such as logistics, civil affairs and psychological operations, not traditional operators.
But that provided little comfort to leaders and supporters of the SOF community.
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2023/11/01/personnel-cuts-and-a-force-redesign-ahead-for-army-special-operations/
