10+ brigades gone. And this may be just the start.
http://www.stripes.com/army-cutting-combat-brigades-at-10-us-bases-1.227473#.Ucm1UtyyUFU.twitter
http://www.stripes.com/army-cutting-combat-brigades-at-10-us-bases-1.227473#.Ucm1UtyyUFU.twitter
WASHINGTON — The Army on Tuesday announced major force structure cuts that will drop the number of brigade combat teams from 45 to 33, saying further shrinkage of the federal defense budget would require even deeper cuts and further lessen the Army’s combat power.
The Army previously announced it would reduce its end-strength from its current level of 541,000 to 490,000 soldiers by 2017 under the $487 billion of spending reductions mandated by the 2011 Budget Control Act, but until Tuesday had only announced it was cutting two brigades in Europe.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said Tuesday that another 12 BCTs would be inactivated. Meanwhile, the number of maneuver battalions per brigade would be increased from two to three, and each brigade would be assigned more engineers.
The Army said 10 combat-ready brigades would be cut from 10 Army installations: Fort Bliss, Texas; Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort Campbell, Ky.; Fort Carson, Colo.; Fort Drum, N.Y.; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Knox, Ky.; Fort Riley, Kan.; Fort Stewart, Ga.; and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. Another two BCTs used for soldier training will also be cut, officials said.
The Army was working early Tuesday to notify Congress of the planned cuts, an Army official told Stars and Stripes.
The Army has 45 brigade combat teams. Officials have been reorganizing the Army into fewer brigades in order to concentrate more infantry units in each brigade. A brigade has roughly 3,500 people.
Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army’s chief of staff, said last year that the Army could shrink from the current 45 combat to 33 if plans that called for increasing maneuver battalions from two to three and increasing brigades’ engineer headcounts were put into action.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the BCT cuts, on Tuesday quoted a defense official as saying the brigade cuts were made after “a deliberate review,” but the scope of the reductions show how much budget cuts are hurting the Pentagon and military readiness.
The cuts to be announced this week are likely the first round for the Army. They don’t take into consideration the across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester, which are set to reduce military spending by an additional $500 billion by 2022.
Officials said if the sequester remains in place or isn’t modified by Congress, the Army will need to consider further, deeper cuts to its force structure that could reduce the number of soldiers to well below 490,000.
Following the announcement, Odierno will visit some of the Army bases hardest hit by the cuts, officials said.