WASHINGTON: The United States army is reducing the size of its force by about 24,000, or almost five percent, and restructuring to be better able to fight future wars, Western media reported on Tuesday.
The army currently facing with recruiting shortfalls that made the force to bring in sufficient strength of soldiers to fill all the jobs impossible.
The cuts will be in already-vacant positions and not actual soldiers, including jobs linked to counter-insurgency that increased during the war in Iraq and Afghanistan but are not required today. About 3,000 of the cuts are from special operations forces of the US Army.
However, at the same time, the plan will add about 7,500 troops in other major missions, including air-defense and counter-drone units and five new task forces in other parts of the world.
According to an Army document, the force is significantly overstructured and there aren’t enough troops to fill existing units.
The decision shows that for years the Army has not been able to fill thousands of vacant positions. While the Army can have up to 494,000 troops, the total number of active-duty soldiers right now is about 445,000. Under the new scheme, the aim is to bring in enough soldiers over the next five years to reach a level of 470,000.
The planned overhaul comes after two decades of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan that forced the Army to expand to fill the brigades sent to the battlefront.
Over time the military’s focus has moved to great power competition from rivals such as China and Russia, and threats from North Korea.
In the last fiscal year, which ended on September 30, the Navy, Army and Air Force all failed to meet their recruitment targets, however, the Marine Corps and the tiny Space Force met their goals.
