Army troops facing big cuts
40,000 soldiers will be trimmed over next 2 years
WASHINGTON — In the midst of a war against the Islamic State group that the Obama administration says will last many years, the Army is moving ahead with big troop cuts. And they could grow even larger unless Congress and the White House find a way to stop further acrossthe-board spending reductions this fall.
Army leaders were notifying members of Congress on Wednesday with details of how they intend to reduce the active-duty force from 490,000 soldiers to 450,000 within two years. The size of the reduction was announced months ago, but congressional delegations have been waiting for word on how the cuts would be distributed and timed; troop reductions can inflict significant economic pain on communities reliant on military base populations.
If a new round of automatic cuts, known as sequestration, goes ahead, the Army says it will have to reduce even further, to 420,000 soldiers.
Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, has said he can accept the planned reduction of 40,000 soldiers over the next two years, which the Army plans to implement by trimming the size of numerous units.
The biggest cuts would be to an infantry unit at Fort Benning, Ga., and an airborne infantry unit at Fort Richardson in Alaska. Both would shrink from about 4,000 soldiers to about 1,050 soldiers, defense officials said Wednesday.
The full plan for specific cuts is expected to be made public by the Army on Thursday.
In Odierno’s view, being forced to shrink the Army is not the hardest part of coping with years-long budget wrangling between the Congress and the White House. Even more difficult, he says, is the uncertainty for military planners.
“The thing I worry about is it has put a lot of turbulence in the Army and brought a lot of angst to our soldiers,” he told reporters May 28. As he nears the end of his tenure as Army chief, Odierno said the only thing that could push the service off its course toward modernization is more budget uncertainty.
“The unpredictability is killing us,” he said.
It may not get any smoother anytime soon. Congressional Republicans are proposing to give President Barack Obama the extra billions he wants for defense in the budget year starting Oct. 1. But Obama says he can’t accept their plan because it maneuvers around spending caps in a way that does not also provide spending relief in non-defense areas of the budget. This portends a September showdown between Congress and the White House.