The U.S. Army may cut 10 of its 45 active-duty brigade combat teams (BCTs) as it works to meet President Obama's order to slice defense spending, said an Army official familiar with the budget deliberations.
Service leaders are still discussing how many Stryker, heavy or infantry BCTs might get cut and when.
The discussions are part of the budget drills each U.S. military service is undertaking before the Defense Department delivers a plan in October to cut its budget by at least $400 billion.
The Army has already announced plans to reduce its end strength by 27,000 starting in 2015 and has set lower recruiting goals to prepare for those cuts. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff, has said the service plans to cut out the temporary 22,000-solider increase that started in 2009 for the Afghanistan surge by 2012.
Subtracting 10 BCTs would fall in line with this plan, said the official, who asked to remain anonymous since discussions are ongoing.
Here's a thought... let's instead take out maneuver support brigades, corps-artillery units, and aviation brigades, rather than cutting foxhole strength.
"But wait! What happens if you need fires and there's no corps artillery to shoot for you?"
Lemme ask you this: if you cut line brigades instead of artillery brigades, who are you firing in support of?
That said, if you're cutting brigades, start with the 82nd/101st. Do we really need as many airborne brigades as they're bringing to the table?
By: Brant
I would suggest that instead of cutting anything from defense, we cut entitlement programs and unsustainable Ponzi schemes such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that the Democrat Party always in the face of “austerity measures” shows their supposed financial responsibility through cutting literally the most important components? At the local level this is always cutting the police force and/or closing fire stations instead of dropping dead weight government workers and closing needless community revitalization projects that never do shit.
At the Federal level, it is always gutting the military* and never ever once taking the budget axe to the entitlement programs enshrined in lead and concrete that are taking the United States into the financial abyss.
* I am all for cutting needless defense programs such as engines for fighters that no service wants, etc.
That would make sense if the 101st actually had any REAL airborne brigades.
ReplyDeleteMatt, you know what I'm after:)
ReplyDeleteHaving a full airmobile division is kind of excessive don't you think? Maybe an airmobile brigade or two spread around the army, but we could easily close/convert 3 BDEs of the 82d and 2-3 of the 101st and not be hurting for strategic mobility.
More importantly, let's whack stuff from the COSCOMs and corps-level FA instead of taking out line brigades. Let's leave the foxhole strength as close to current as we can and instead close out FOBbit slots and support UICs.