Army Planners Are Weighing Force Reductions of Up to 90,000 Active-Duty Soldiers, Making America Stronger Than Ever

[essentialsaltes]

The Army is quietly considering a sweeping reduction of up to 90,000 active-duty troops, a move that underscores mounting fiscal pressures at the Pentagon and a broader shift in military strategy away from Europe and counterterrorism, according to three defense officials familiar with the deliberations.

Internal discussions are exploring trimming the force to between 360,000 and 420,000 troops -- down from its current level of roughly 450,000. The potential cuts would mark one of the most dramatic force reductions in years, as military planners aim to reshape the Army from a blunt conventional force into what they hope could be a more agile, specialized instrument better suited for future conflicts.

 

[iluvatar5150]

"Agile" and "specialized" are definitely two words I associate with the Trump administration.

well... at least the "special" part.

 

[Hans Blaster]

The Army is quietly considering a sweeping reduction of up to 90,000 active-duty troops, a move that underscores mounting fiscal pressures at the Pentagon and a broader shift in military strategy away from Europe and counterterrorism, according to three defense officials familiar with the deliberations.

Internal discussions are exploring trimming the force to between 360,000 and 420,000 troops -- down from its current level of roughly 450,000. The potential cuts would mark one of the most dramatic force reductions in years, as military planners aim to reshape the Army from a blunt conventional force into what they hope could be a more agile, specialized instrument better suited for future conflicts.

It's like they didn't learn the prime lesson of the biggest war going on today.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Trade wars are easy, real wars are easier.

Remember, Trump is smarter than the Generals.

 

[Laodicean60]

Not a good idea if we continue warmongering.

 

[essentialsaltes]

It's like they didn't learn the prime lesson of the biggest war going on today.

It also reminds me of the state of intelligence work pre 2001 - we don't need boots on the ground with knowledge of local languages. We have spy satellites.

 

[Always in His Presence]

Hmmm... the left should be rejoicing from the house tops - how many years have we been preached to about we spend too much om the military.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Hmmm... the left should be rejoicing from the house tops - how many years have we been preached to about we spend too much om the military.

Our beef is more with the expensive toys than the soldiers. The pay for 100,000 troops is much less than one aircraft carrier.

And given that Congress has not cut any funding, that money will wind up somewhere, I expect.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Hmmm... the left should be rejoicing from the house tops - how many years have we been preached to about we spend too much om the military.

There are a lot of reasons the variety of people left of the Republican party have had with the US military and defense spending. The reason this guy left of the GOP is weary of this particular move is that it represents (so it would seem) a move to realign the US military even more towards special ops (a direction Sec. Hegseth is known to favor) precisely as we have had modern warfare at scale demonstrated to us in Ukraine. The old notions of combined arms and mechanized assault don't seem so out of date.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

There are a lot of reasons the variety of people left of the Republican party have had with the US military and defense spending. The reason this guy left of the GOP is weary of this particular move is that it represents (so it would seem) a move to realign the US military even more towards special ops (a direction Sec. Hegseth is known to favor) precisely as we have had modern warfare at scale demonstrated to us in Ukraine. The old notions of combined arms and mechanized assault don't seem so out of date.

Yeah, thoes National Guard guys love the Special Warfare people. I used to do that stuff, I'm happier driving Warships now.

 

[essentialsaltes]

<Kenny Loggins Intensifies>

 

[RocksInMyHead]

<Kenny Loggins Intensifies>

View attachment 363158

I see no highway leading there...

 

[SimplyMe]

Hmmm... the left should be rejoicing from the house tops - how many years have we been preached to about we spend too much om the military.

I doubt the left will celebrate a smaller Army when the budget of the military is still increasing. From what I've seen, there are supposed to be similar personnel cuts to other branches of the military. Yet, these don't seem to line up with what the Trump administration is claiming they want to do with the military.

To give one easy example, the Navy has a long standing goal of having 400 ships. Hegseth has talked about how our Navy isn't big enough to confront Russia, or China, and that it needs to be larger. Yet, ships take sailors to operate -- the fewer sailors, the fewer ships you have in the fleet. So, I'm not quite sure, with the personnel cuts, how we'll have enough sailors to keep operating the current ships we have in the Navy, much less the additional ships they want to build.

What I suspect may happen, is Trump is going to cut support personnel while trying to increase "combat troops" and increase the amount of military equipment (ships, jets, tanks, etc.) -- only to have the military start to have serious issues with equipment failure and supply chains when troops are in the field (even for their military exercises). At which point they'll try to increase the size larger than current levels (since you have more combat troops to support) and require even more funding for the military; which will then be classified as emergency spending, painting any that oppose the increase as anti-military.

We are seeing similar things in other areas of government. The VA is a good example, where the plan is to cut roughly 17% of the VA workforce. From what I'm seeing, none of the cuts are of doctors and nurses -- it is the "support" people being cut. The current fear among many is that cutting 20% (likely even 25%) of the "support" workforce in the VA will cause massive issues in maintaining VA hospitals, in getting Veterans their medications, and causing supply shortages in the VA system.

The issue that many have seen with DOGE is that, at least when firing people, the cuts aren't targeted at waste, fraud, or abuse but just predetermined targets of how much smaller they want various departments; with no evaluation of how these cuts will affect the work that department is doing.

 

[Hans Blaster]

<Kenny Loggins Intensifies>

View attachment 363158

You beat me to it.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

I see no highway leading there...

Actually US highway 13 is in tunnel form just to the right of "The Danger Zone".

The actual intention was to show my general location since I don't let my phone dox me. Kenny Loggins is way more funny.

 

[Richard T]

So why give out up to 50k bonus for signing up if they are planning on troop reductions? Perhaps the real reason they are reducing the numbers is because so few want to join.

Source: https://recruiting.army.mil/News/Article/2897062/army-offers-up-to-50k-in-enlistment-incentives/

"FORT KNOX, Ky. –
The U.S. Army is offering its largest bonus ever for new recruits with up to $50,000 available to qualified individuals who sign on for a six-year active-duty enlistment. The total incentive package for a new recruit is based on a combination of incentives offered for the selected career field, individual qualifications, length of the enlistment contract, and the ship date for training."

 

[DaisyDay]

Hegseth seems to want to get rid of the lady soldiers. The transgendered enlistees have been booted. We don’t want diversity so what could be less diverse than assembly line robots-soldiers? Would that be outsourced to Tesla or SpaceX?

 

[Hans Blaster]

Hegseth seems to want to get rid of the lady soldiers. The transgendered enlistees have been booted. We don’t want diversity so what could be less diverse than assembly line robots-soldiers? Would that be outsourced to Tesla or SpaceX?

Frankly, my first thought when I saw that news was that they just planned to eliminate whole units (at the smallest scale possible) where soldiers the courts wouldn't allow them to separate were assigned.

 

[DaisyDay]

Frankly, my first thought when I saw that news was that they just planned to eliminate whole units (at the smallest scale possible) where soldiers the courts wouldn't allow them to separate were assigned.

Yes, I reckon that if they cared about protocols, regulations and such then that would be the way to do it, but... Helter Skelter!

 

[The IbanezerScrooge]

Actually US highway 13 is in tunnel form just to the right of "The Danger Zone".

The actual intention was to show my general location since I don't let my phone dox me. Kenny Loggins is way more funny.

Yeah, but, "Highwaaay justtotherightofthe Daynger Zowne!" doesn't have the same ring.