‘Large-scale combat’ Army’s focus as it cuts 24K positions

The U.S. Army is cutting about 5% of its ranks — 24,000 jobs in all — as it embarks on a structural revamp to balance recruiting shortfalls with changing military circumstances.

Most of the cuts will be for positions that are already vacant. Some of those jobs are no longer necessary, as the needs in areas such as counterinsurgency have changed since the scaling back of troops in Iraq and the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Other cuts are in units with unfilled spaces due to an ongoing shortfall in recruitment efforts.

“For nearly 20 years the Army’s force structure reflected a focus on counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations that dominated after the 9/11 attacks,” the Army said in a document outlining the changes. “The Army will continue to need capabilities related to these missions. But in light of the changing security environment and evolving character of war, the Army is refocusing on conducting large-scale combat operations against technologically advanced military powers.”

Doing so requires generating new capabilities and rebalancing its structure, the military said. Army leadership came to these conclusions after extensively consulting with Congress and conducting a deep analysis of operations, capabilities and the changing global military environment.

“These planned reductions are to authorizations (spaces), and not to individual soldiers (faces),” the Army said. “The Army is not asking current soldiers to leave.”

Another focus is to modernize and recapitalize weapons platforms, some of which date to the start of the Cold War. This is essential for “deterring adversaries that have leveraged new military technologies to grow more potent and aggressive,” the Army said. “Implementing these force structure changes represents a significant shift for the Army, moving the Army away from counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations to a focus on large-scale combat operations against highly sophisticated adversaries.”

To that end, the plan also involves adding 7,500 or so troops in areas such as air defense and counterdrone units, and creating task forces to amp up capabilities in cyberactivities, intelligence-gathering and long-range strikes.

Addressing the recruitment shortfall, the Army is creating units devoted specifically to that task.