U.S. Army says it’s restructuring, cutting positions

The U.S. Army on Tuesday said that it was restructuring to “better face future threats.” In a published document, the Army described itself as “significantly over-structured” and said it would be cutting roughly 24,000 positions—positions it insisted were mostly unfilled. “The Army is not asking current soldiers to leave,” it wrote. It also said it was cutting roughly 3,000 troops from its special forces, which it said had too many troops.

But isn’t the Army also struggling to find recruits? The Army acknowledged in the document that it has been facing “recruiting challenges” but said it would embark on a “recruiting enterprise.” It also said it would seek to “professionalize” its recruiting workforce.

Why is the Army doing this restructuring? In the document, the Army said that despite reducing its size, the transition would help it shift from “counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations” to focusing on “large-scale combat operations against highly sophisticated adversaries.”

But is there a particular reason for this? The Army’s document said after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it had primarily focused on countering terrorist activity. However, “in light of the changing security environment and evolving character of war,” its focus needed to change. The Army published the document just days after the second anniversary of Russia’s war on Ukraine. The United States has provided ammunition and weapons to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia’s neighbors Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO, with Finland becoming a member early last year. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday that Sweden would become NATO’s 32nd member.

Dig deeper: Read my recent report in The Sift about the White House confirming the existence of a Russian anti-satellite program.