Army numbers smallest since WWII — what units face cuts in 2024?

[Geee]

Defense News

The new year will likely prove to be one of significant force structure changes for the Army, according to its senior leaders.

Although the service has maintained for years that embracing multidomain operations will require it to “transform” its force structure into one leaders believe is suited to tomorrow’s battlefield, back-to-back recruiting shortfalls led top officials to admit by mid-to-late 2023 that some pending cuts are influenced by a deepening numbers shortfall. The Army finished fiscal year 2023 with only 452,000 active duty soldiers, its smallest force since 1940.

 

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told Army Times in June that the service will see reductions to “close-combat forces” that were purpose-built for the War on Terror, in addition to other organizations based on their purpose or other factors like deployment rates.

 

Controversy erupted in October following a Wall Street Journal report suggesting that 3,000 Army special operations troops could be cut. According to other media reports, the special operations community and Army leadership disagreed about the potential reductions, ultimately requiring mediation from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Although details on the cuts are scarce, service and special operations officials briefed Congress on the matter in October. The briefing included “Army structure changes, to include [special operations forces],” according to a congressional staffer, who spoke on condition their name not be used in order to discuss the private briefing. A significant portion of the special operations cuts are expected to fall on hard-to-fill empty billets, a defense official told Army Times in October.

[Geee]

The Marine Corps has trained its final 8 scout snipers

The last eight Marines graduated from the course that trains scout snipers — an elite role the Marine Corps has scrapped as part of broader changes to the force.

Eight Marines graduated from the last Scout Sniper Course at the School of Infantry-East at Camp Geiger, North Carolina, on Dec. 15.

 

The graduation marks the end of a long era that stretches back as far as World War I, when the Marine Corps first used scout snipers, according to retired Master Sgt. Tim Parkhurst, CEO of the USMC Scout Sniper Association.

The final graduates of the scout sniper course won’t receive the scout sniper military occupational specialty, but “they will play a vital role of ensuring infantry battalions retain scouting and precision marksmanship capabilities while the training and curriculum necessary to meet fleet requirements is finalized and approved,” Marine Corps Training and Education Command spokesman Maj. Joshua Pena said in an email to Marine Corps Times on Wednesday.

 

In February, the Marine Corps announced it was cutting infantry battalions’ scout sniper platoons and replacing them with scout platoons specifically focused on reconnaissance.

Previously, Marine infantry battalions had scout sniper platoons, made up of formally trained marksmen who also had reconnaissance skills, along with Marines who received on-the-job training.

The change from 18-Marine scout sniper platoons to 26-Marine scout platoons comes as the Marine Corps is restructuring the force in preparation for potential conflict with a powerful, high-tech adversary like the Chinese military. One of the service’s top priorities in this overhaul, called Force Design 2030, is to improve the Marines’ reconnaissance capabilities.

“The shift to a Scout Platoon will allow those Marines to focus their training and evaluations on scouting, providing commanders the right tools to accomplish their mission,” Marine spokesman Capt. Ryan Bruce told Marine Corps Times in February.

The decision kicked up controversy in the scout sniper community.

 

[Valin]

28 minutes ago, Geee said:

The Marine Corps has trained its final 8 scout snipers

The last eight Marines graduated from the course that trains scout snipers — an elite role the Marine Corps has scrapped as part of broader changes to the force.

Eight Marines graduated from the last Scout Sniper Course at the School of Infantry-East at Camp Geiger, North Carolina, on Dec. 15.

Given *The nature of modern warfare They WILL be back. Big Military is now trying its best to forget the lessons learned in GWOT. Actually they want to pretend it never happened.

* Sending a couple of guys out to Kill someone might prevent an attack, war. Nothing is better/cheaper than sending a couple of guys out with a radio  to say Bad Guys Are Here.

[Valin]

42 minutes ago, Geee said:

Defense News

The new year will likely prove to be one of significant force structure changes for the Army, according to its senior leaders.

Although the service has maintained for years that embracing multidomain operations will require it to “transform” its force structure into one leaders believe is suited to tomorrow’s battlefield, back-to-back recruiting shortfalls led top officials to admit by mid-to-late 2023 that some pending cuts are influenced by a deepening numbers shortfall. The Army finished fiscal year 2023 with only 452,000 active duty soldiers, its smallest force since 1940.

Given the desire of so many people on The Right to withdraw from The World (isolationism) I suspect many (The Freedom Caucus, and their allies in right wing media?) are not unhappy at this. Of course these are the same people who will scream DO SOMETHING after **it hits the fan.

"if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War."

G Washington

Si vis pacem, para bellum

[Valin]