Army Frustrated by Congress, Prepares for Large Drawdown
National Defense Magazine reports that “the Army is drawing up plans for how it would operate with nearly 100,000 fewer troops. The analysis will identify specific missions and duties the Army would no longer be able to do at that smaller size.”
“’we go below 450,000, we have to redo the strategy,’ said Gen. John F. Campbell, the Army’s 34th vice chief of staff who will soon take over U.S. command of the war in Afghanistan.”
“The Army already is on a path to shrink from 513,000 active-duty soldiers to 490,000 by 2015, and 450,000 by 2017. But unless Congress repeals the spending limits set by law through 2021, the Army would have to downsize further, to 420,000, by 2019.”