Despite the hysteria over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US army is expected to fall below 1 million soldiers for the first time in two decades. This is after a new budget proposal as leaders struggle with recruitment in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to a Bloomberg report:
The active-duty Army would drop from the 485,000 soldiers Congress authorized for this year to 473,000, a reduction of 12,000 people, as part of the service’s fiscal 2023 budget proposal. When combined with flat National Guard and Reserve forces, the service would have a total of 998,500 soldiers.
The Army—the largest U.S. military service—is transitioning from two decades of counterterrorism missions in Afghanistan and the Middle East, and is seeking to fortify itself against challenges posed by China in the Pacific region and Russia in Eastern Europe following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The “pro-active” decision was driven by a focus on recruiting high-quality soldiers without lowering standards, and not by the need to free up money in the budget, said Gabe Camarillo, the undersecretary of the Army.
“We did not want, as we looked ahead at recruiting projections, to take any decrease in our quality,” to focus on high quality talent that can operate within the Army’s “cutting-edge” formations, Camarillo told reporters at a Pentagon roundtable.
Despite having a high-tech tank like the newest model of the Abrams, or highly intricate missile and air defense systems like the Patriot and THAAD, this equipment still needs bright minds to properly work it.
It’s a huge disappointment that the Army can’t manage to recruit the men it needs, though perhaps its weakness and witch-hunt for “extremists” are more to blame than the labor market.
Sources: Trending Politics, Bloomberg