THE ARMY RESTRUCTURING PLAN 2
Abstract
The U.S. Army plans on cutting 80,000 soldiers by 2013. This will be done by cutting the number of combat brigades from 45 to as low as 32. This restructuring comes as the Pentagon works on its 2013 fiscal year budget, which much reflect $260 billion in savings over the next five years. On January 26, 2012 senior DOD leaders released a new defense strategy, this is based on the current budget constraints. “This new strategy will focus on a smaller, leaner military that is agile, flexible, rapidly deployable, and more technologically advanced (Feikert & Henning page 5, 2012).” This new military will
…show more content…
Military personnel will still see a raise of 1.7%, but retirees will be hit with increases in health care fees, deductibles and co-pays. This will be a burden of retirees who are under 65 and have another job, also the one's who make more money. “Chairman of the House Armed Service Committee Buck McKeon, warned that steep cuts to the military funding are ill-advised because of the potential for future conflicts that cannot be foreseen (Jaffe, 2012).” Going back to past wars, the military lowered it's numbers after each one and was not ready for the attacks that happened in the future. The Defense budget has been subject to large cuts in funding which is know as the “sequester,” this was the result of the super committee failure to reach an agreement last summer. That was when the freeze was on the military pay for a month. Many officials believe the cuts by Obama are way too early. With all the draw down and cutting back they are asking the military to constantly do more with less. The military is looking to come up with the right joint force. The Army grew during the past ten years, they were in need of soldiers and did mass recruiting. Now that the wars are drawing down it seems like they are just dumping these soldiers on the sideline's. They do not realize what these soldiers have been through especially with all the mental health issues. Ray Odierno said he is comfortable with corrections being made, based on future
Furthermore, the new budget is not focusing on keeping America a superpower, which is making our country look weak. Downsizing our military forces at the rate we are is going to put our military back down to pre world war two times. “Army alone will lose about 15,000 troops”
Additionally, the so-called "fiscal cliff" is another issue. This prescribes further budget cuts to the VA. There is real concern that further cuts to an already cut-ravaged system will only do tremendous harm to the 2-million-plus veterans that have returned from the Middle East, in addition to the existing vets from previous wars.
The sequestration that the Obama administration proposed would leave America with the smallest ground force it has ever seen since 1940s, the smallest number of ships since 1915, and the smallest Air Force in history. The Republican Party adamantly opposed the impending defense spending cuts, stating that they were severe and that it would be a disaster to our national security, a decline of our nation’s defense industrial base, and would result in the layoff of more than 1 million skilled workers.
The quick evolving military environment, needs the US Army redouble its efforts to reduce the uncertainty associated with the downsizing. There are some predominant principles that can guide the Army’s efforts in minimizing the impact of uncertainty during the force reduction. Even with major political and legislative challenges, keeping balance among the different proportions of readiness is a goal of US defense policy. During the budgetary preparation, downsizing of the armed forces often becomes one of the first victims of fiscal reduction. This was true of the years between World War I and World War II, when the Great Depression made military preparedness a very low national priority. The Army’s downsizing effect put its readiness
In the past America has been a dominant superpower in the field of military strength, but for the last few decades, our military has encountered abounding liquidations and sequestrations, which lead to huge budget cuts. Nevertheless, America has faced many politicians planning to cut down on our military by virtue of it is simply cost effective. The Clinton Foundation has been cutting our military for countless years. Also, under the Obama Administration has been enacting laws comparable to the Budget Control Act or (BCA) which has been siphoning our military for the past 8 years. For countless years, defense officials remain silent due to the Obama Administration, vaguely America could keep its budget under control. Consequently, all four
Throughout military history, the government quickly downsizes its army to its bare minimum after conflicts, usually within five years, due to budgeting issues. According to Mary Ann Evans, the author of Downsizing In The U.S. Army: Common
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are winding down and that will help lower the defense spending by almost $1 trillion over the next decade. The congress is realizing that they need to do some restructuring and have already begun rearranging the military budget in response to austerity. Congress conjured up a $630 billion defense appropriations bill that made plans to reduce civilian and contractor personnel by 5 percent over the next five years and in return ramp up advanced weapons programs, including drones, bombers and missiles says The Washington Post. The American Conservative
Given constrained funding and the requirements of short-term national military objectives and longer term operations, the Army should balance the Total Force as follows: first, decrease the Active Component deployments and increase the Reserve Component, specifically the National Guard. Second, assign National Guard units to specific regions and/or missions so that their training can be focused on these conflicts. And third, increase the use of National Guard units to reduce active component use particularly for low-intensity conflict and short term missions.
Increasing defense spending is a must not only to defend our borders but also to assure a leading position in world affairs. President Bush has proposed a $379.9 billon budget for the Department of Defense (DoD), a $15.3 billion increase. The President plans to boost military pay, housing, training, intelligence, and technology. By adding pay and supplying better living quarters to those marines, soldiers, airmen, and sailors enhance morale and allows the further experienced to stay in for a longer time.
To fund or not to fund the Armed Forces? Many Americans have asked why we should pay for the military. Is the military a priority to fund during harsh economic times? Critics argue that the military is overfunded. The military should be shrink and suffer budget cuts, to save the country billions of dollars. This might, however back fire at the U.S if passed. The Armed Forces are an important component of the Country. Under funding the military will cause the United
This plan failed, however, as lawmakers were not able to come up with a bipartisan solution. After both parties failed to come up with a solution that would satisfy both parties, automatic budget cuts then came into effect. These automatic cuts called for a $109 billion to be cut annual. The weight of the cuts would be spread equally throughout the U.S. Government, being carried by both military and nonmilitary departments alike, meaning that the budget cuts to the military alone would total $55 billion annually each fiscal year. It is through these cuts that the Navy will have to operate on into the foreseeable future.
U.S Guard Considers Replacing Thousands of Soldiers With Robots. A week ago at the Army Aviation Symposium, in Arlington, Va., a U.S Guard officer declared that the Army is looking to thin down its faculty numbers and receive more robots over the impending years. The greatest shock, however, is the scale of the downsizing the Army may point for. At the current rate, the Army is relied upon to psychologist from 540,000 individuals down to 420,000 by 2019. Yet finally week's occasion, Gen. Robert Cone, leader of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command, offered some amazing insights about the thin down arrangements. As Defense News put it, he "quietly dropped a shell," saying the Army is examining the likelihood of lessening the span of an unit from 4,000 fighters to 3,000 in the nearing years. To keep things as compelling while diminishing labor, the Army will accumulate more unmanned force, as robots. From the Defense News story:
2. Every year the Department of Defense (DoD) sets up a budget for the military. The budget can be lower than what the military needs to be able to do their mission. The Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 budget of the DoD was made to maintain a mission ready force focused on institutional reforms that control costs and support a highly trained workforce while taking care of service members and their families.1 The DoD seeks to progress toward achieving full spectrum combat readiness.2 However, the sharp defense cuts are harming the ability of our Armed Forces to execute their assigned missions.3 The strategy
We have been taking money away from our soldiers and military gradually, and cutting spaces for new troops. Why are we doing this? The government claims it to be the right way to go with our money funds. It isn’t the right way to go. Decreasing the funding for the military will take away advancing in technology, jobs, protection, and eventually our freedom.
I agree that our active duty force will become smaller over the next five years. Even though the active duty Army is programed to become smaller, the Chief of Staff of the Army has stated that size of the Army will not be 450K, but will be 980K. This suggests integration, or operationalization, of the guard and reserves. If the Army does integrate, it may also affect acquisition strategies and fielding plans of weapon systems that have already been programed. Synchronized operationalization of the reserves will require coordination of capabilities to ensure the total force is able to shoot, move and communicate effectively. Currently the reserves are not on par with the capability sets being fielded to active duty units. This may take years