Reuters reports that “the U.S. Army warned on Monday that mandatory budget cuts due to resume in fiscal 2016 would be devastating to a service that is already facing huge risks as it tries to keep forces ready for battle, replace aging equipment and respond to crises around the world.”  

“‘We have to have a national security debate … because there is too much going on,’ U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno told reporters at the annual Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) conference.”  

“Odierno said the Army had agreed to further reduce the size of its active force to 450,000 troops from an earlier goal of 490,000 to comply with mandatory budget cuts known as sequestration, but he questioned if even the original target would allow the Army to respond as needed around the globe.”  

Defense News adds that “Odierno described an Army increasingly committed on six continents and 150 countries, in the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Jordan and Kuwait, Romania, Poland, Central and South America, on the Horn of Africa and, most recently, in West African countries to join the fight against Ebola. The Army is returning forces to Iraq and it is fully engaged in Afghanistan.”