“There was a singular moment late last year during a briefing for senior US Army leaders on the service’s just-concluded yearly war game when one general laid out the future challenges facing the force,” Defense News reports.  

“While the briefers shifted in their seats and their presentation hovered in PowerPoint limbo on a large projection screen, the general explained that the Army has no control over how the Navy and Air Force spend their money.”  

Said the general: “Like it or not [transporting Army troops], that’s not their priority. We have to control our own destiny, and to control our own destiny, we have to reduce the amount [of troops and equipment] that has to be moved.”  

“That’s the problem facing Army planners today as they put together their yearly and long-term budget projections, and work to reset the force after 12 years of continuous combat in two theaters of war. And there is little that the service appears unwilling to tweak as it heads into the future.”