- The Army’s new structure will accommodate unmanned aerial vehicles, guided missiles, and artillery.
- However, the Army is planning to launch a new unit amid difficulties in recruiting.
- The Army is also basing its plans on untested weapons, the Congressional Research Service warned.
Congressional analysts argue that the U.S. Army is restructuring to fight major powers such as Russia and China, but lacks the strength and recruits to do so.
The 2024 Army Structural Reform will be the Army’s fifth major realignment since 2003. army white paperthe focus will be on responding to technological changes in warfare, such as the threat of unmanned aerial vehicles and long-range guided weapons, while conserving scarce human resources.
But that may be easier said than done. “Establishing the powers for new and existing units discussed in the Army White Paper is one thing, filling those powers with qualified soldiers is another,” warns the newcomer. report By the Congressional Research Service, which analyzes issues in Congress.
The most notable aspect of the Army’s plans is a number of new units for anti-drone defense and air and missile defense. These forces, assigned to corps- and division-level formations, will include four additional “indirect fire capable” battalions intended to shoot down cruise missiles, rockets, and artillery and mortar shells. Become. In addition, nine anti-small unmanned aircraft squadrons, tasked with destroying small unmanned aircraft, and four mobile short-range air defense (M-SHORAD) battalions, tasked with interdicting manned aircraft, helicopters, and drones, will be added.
They will help shape the Army’s five multi-domain task forces, theater-level units with unusual capabilities such as hypersonic missiles, cyber warfare, interdiction and intelligence data integration. At the same time, the Army is trying to deal with a draft crisis that has left some units understaffed. The transformation plan would reduce authorized force, or the maximum number of soldiers allowed, from 494,000 to 470,000. The Army currently has approximately 450,000 active duty soldiers. By contrast, the U.S. Army had 770,000 soldiers in the late Cold War when it was formed to counter the Soviet Union.
“The Army will reduce its redundant and nearly unmanned ‘hollow’ force structure and build new formations with new capabilities needed for large-scale combat operations,” the Army White Paper said. This includes a reduction of 3,000 authorized special operations forces personnel. Some functions, such as reassignment of engineers from brigade combat teams to divisions, will also be consolidated, reducing engineer slots.
However, even if there is integration and recruitment promotion, new warrant officer The Army may not be able to find enough personnel to replace existing forces and create new air defense formations. In 2023, the Army is 10,000 short of recruiting 65,000 new recruits.
“Given historical recruiting shortfalls and preliminary FY 2024 recruiting data, it is difficult to predict whether the Army will be able to correct its recruiting challenges in the short and long term,” CRS said.
The Army may also be focusing too much on cutting-edge “soft” technology rather than the older kinetic weapons that proved so relevant and deadly in the Ukraine war. “The Army White Paper focuses more on technology-based non-kinetic spatial and cyber effects, long-range precision fires, and force protection than on traditional close combat force capabilities, Army special operations forces capabilities, and security force support. “It appears that there is ‘capacity,”’ CRS said.
The Army also has plans for untested weapons, such as long-range hypersonic missiles and air defense lasers. “Some units, such as LRHW batteries and directed energy (DE) SHORAD units, do not have mature weapons or technology,” the CRS warned. Neither the military nor Congress knows exactly how much realignment will cost.
Inevitably, there will also be disruption caused by further transformation of the Army. In 2003, the Army transitioned from Cold War-era heavy mechanized divisions to small, light brigades suited for counterinsurgency. Now, the Army has come full circle, reconfiguring itself for Cold War-style mechanized combat against larger adversaries like Russia and China. At the same time, it will also need to incorporate new technologies such as drones and long-range artillery, which proved effective in the Ukraine war.
Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Business Insider that the reorganization addresses some of the Army’s problems. “The new force is well-suited for great power conflict. China and Russia have far more powerful air and missile forces than the regional adversaries the military has faced for generations.”
Forces armed with hypersonic missiles, especially given that Russia and the United States withdrew in 2019 from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed in 1987 to curb cruise missiles and other intermediate-range nuclear weapons. The creation also makes sense.
“Long-range artillery is an opportunity opened up by the end of the INF,” Cancian said. Nevertheless, this reorganization does not address the real problem. “The Army’s big problem is that the military as a whole is too small to carry out all of its peacetime and wartime commitments,” Cancian said.
Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy Magazine, and other publications. He holds a master’s degree in political science from Rutgers University.please follow him twitter and linkedin.
