On February 28, AP news agency reported that the US Army is reducing its manpower by about 24,000 people, equivalent to nearly 5%, and is restructuring to have better combat capabilities in the context of this country’s military. struggled with recruitment shortages that resulted in not having enough soldiers to fill all positions.
The cuts will largely occur in positions that are already vacant — not active duty military personnel. About 3,000 of the cuts will come from Army special forces.
However, the personnel plan will also add about 7,500 soldiers for other important missions, including air defense and counter-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) units as well as five new special forces on the around the world are strengthened, capable of attacking cyber security, intelligence and long-range combat.
US Army soldiers on the Syrian battlefield. Photo: Getty Images
US Secretary of the Army Christine Elizabeth Wormuth said she and Army Chief of Staff, General Randy George, have planned to reduce the number of soldiers in vacant or surplus positions. Speaking to reporters on February 27, Ms. Wormuth said: “We gradually move away from counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency. The US wants to be ready for large-scale combat operations. So we also consider whether there are elements of the force that might be more involved in counterinsurgency operations, for example, that we don’t need anymore.”
According to an Army document, the force is “overorganized” and does not have enough soldiers to supplement existing units. The document said the cuts were a matter of “manpower modifications” and not “face” and that the Army would not ask soldiers to leave the force. Instead, this decision reflects the fact that for many years, the US Army has been unable to fill thousands of vacant positions. While the Army, if calculated with its current structure, could have up to 494,000 soldiers, the total number of active soldiers currently is about 445,000. According to the new plan, the goal is to arrange enough troops in the next five years to reach 470,000 soldiers.
The planned overhaul after two decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan forced the US Army to expand rapidly and aggressively to recruit more brigades deployed to the battlefield. This includes a large-scale counterinsurgency mission against the international terrorist network Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) group.
Over time, the US military’s focus shifted to great power competition from rivals such as China and Russia, as well as threats from Iran and North Korea. And the war in Ukraine also shows the need to pay more attention to air defense systems and high-tech capabilities both for use and against UAVs in the air and at sea.
US Army generals said they have thoroughly reviewed all of the service’s job specialties to look for positions that need to be reduced. At the same time, they also consider ongoing efforts to help the Army become more modern, including new high-tech weapons, to see where they need to focus their forces.
According to the plan, the US Army will cut about 10,000 engineer positions and similar jobs associated with counterinsurgency missions, 2,700 positions will be cut at units that are not regularly deployed and may be reduced. reduction, 6,500 positions will be cut from training units and other positions. In addition, about 10,000 soldiers were cut from cavalry squadrons, Stryker brigade combat teams, infantry brigade combat teams and security force support brigades, which were used to training foreign forces.
In the last fiscal year, ending on September 30, 2023, all three branches of the US military, including the Navy, Army and Air Force, failed to meet their recruitment goals, while the Marine Corps and The modest Space Force has again achieved its recruiting goals. The Army has only recruited more than 50,000 recruits, not reaching the publicly announced “long-term goal” of 65,000 people.
In the previous fiscal year, the US Army also did not meet its enlistment target, missing 15,000 people compared to the set target of 60,000.
VNA
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