The Army plans to slash 80,000 soldiers over the next decade in a broad restructuring aimed at helping the Pentagon come up with hundreds of billions in savings.
The reduction in strength — from 570,000 to 490,000 — will coincide with the elimination of at least eight of the Army’s 45 brigades, which are made up of two to five battalions of 600 to 800 soldiers each. As many as 13 brigades could be cut, according to the Associated Press, and the brigades that aren’t on the chopping block will be bigger, with additional battalions.
While all the services are drawing down their ranks — the Air Force, Navy and Marines, too, are cutting tens of thousands of servicemen — the military intends to increase its fleet of armed drones by 30 percent and deploy more special-operations teams such as Navy SEAL Team Six, which killed Osama bin Laden in May and rescued two people this week in Somalia. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is expected to outline the plan today and in budget documents next month, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Army cuts also will be included in the Pentagon’s 2013 budget, which must reflect $260 billion in savings as part of a five-year plan. Congress has ordered the Defense Department to come up with $487 billion in reductions by 2022.
It is not yet known how the Army will decide which soldiers get pink slips. Special operations units will not be cut and the Army will try to avoid cutting mid-level officers with the rank of major or higher.
Supporters of a smaller Army think 490,000 troops can handle any potential threat.
“At worst, we’re talking about going back to where we were just before Sept. 11,” Lawrence Korb, a defense analyst for the Center for American Progress, told Stars and Stripes.
Critics, though, contend the Army won’t have the manpower it needs to fight. James Carafano, a policy researcher at the Heritage Foundation who is a retired Army lieutenant colonel, thinks an Army of fewer than 500,000 soldiers is ineffective.
“People say, ‘Oh, the only thing we won’t be able to do is more Iraqs and Afghanistans,’ ” Carafano said. “We’re talking about going back to an Army in the ’90s that could barely do business.”
Samuel.Goldsmith@thedaily.com
The reduction in strength — from 570,000 to 490,000 — will coincide with the elimination of at least eight of the Army’s 45 brigades, which are made up of two to five battalions of 600 to 800 soldiers each. As many as 13 brigades could be cut, according to the Associated Press, and the brigades that aren’t on the chopping block will be bigger, with additional battalions.
While all the services are drawing down their ranks — the Air Force, Navy and Marines, too, are cutting tens of thousands of servicemen — the military intends to increase its fleet of armed drones by 30 percent and deploy more special-operations teams such as Navy SEAL Team Six, which killed Osama bin Laden in May and rescued two people this week in Somalia. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is expected to outline the plan today and in budget documents next month, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Army cuts also will be included in the Pentagon’s 2013 budget, which must reflect $260 billion in savings as part of a five-year plan. Congress has ordered the Defense Department to come up with $487 billion in reductions by 2022.
It is not yet known how the Army will decide which soldiers get pink slips. Special operations units will not be cut and the Army will try to avoid cutting mid-level officers with the rank of major or higher.
Supporters of a smaller Army think 490,000 troops can handle any potential threat.
“At worst, we’re talking about going back to where we were just before Sept. 11,” Lawrence Korb, a defense analyst for the Center for American Progress, told Stars and Stripes.
Critics, though, contend the Army won’t have the manpower it needs to fight. James Carafano, a policy researcher at the Heritage Foundation who is a retired Army lieutenant colonel, thinks an Army of fewer than 500,000 soldiers is ineffective.
“People say, ‘Oh, the only thing we won’t be able to do is more Iraqs and Afghanistans,’ ” Carafano said. “We’re talking about going back to an Army in the ’90s that could barely do business.”
Samuel.Goldsmith@thedaily.com
