Army To Cut Brigades At 10 U.S. Bases
June 25, 2013
In a massive restructuring, the U.S. Army is slashing the number of active duty combat brigades from 45 to 33, and shifting thousands of soldiers out of bases around the country as it moves forward with a longtime plan to cut the size of the service by 80,000.
Officials say
the sweeping changes would eliminate brigades at 10 Army bases in the U.S. by 2017, including in Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, Colorado, North Carolina, New York, Kansas and Washington. The Army will also cut thousands of other jobs across the service, including soldiers in units that support the brigades, and two brigades in Germany have already been scheduled for elimination.
Officials provided details on the plans on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. An announcement is expected Tuesday afternoon. The Army is being reduced in size from a high of about 570,000 during the peak of the Iraq war to 490,000 as part of efforts to cut the budget and reflect the country's military needs as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan end. Additional reductions could be required if Congress allows automatic budget cuts to continue into next year.
While the cuts may have less impact at some of the Army's larger bases such as Fort Hood in Texas and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, they could be more painful for communities around some of the smaller installations such as Fort Knox, where currently only one brigade is based.
The other seven U.S. bases that will lose a brigade are: Fort Bliss in Texas, Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Fort Carson in Colorado, Fort Drum in New York, Fort Riley in Kansas, Fort Stewart in Georgia, and Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington. Soldiers in the deactivated brigades would be transferred to other units.
The overall cut in size has been known for more than a year, and Army leaders have been working on how to manage the reduction, conducting local community meetings across the country and releasing an extensive study on the issue earlier this year.
Under the plan set to be announced Tuesday, the Army will increase the size of its infantry and armor brigades by adding another battalion, which is between 600-800 soldiers. Adding the battalion was a recommendation from commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan who said it would beef up the fighting capabilities of the brigades when they go to war.
A brigade is usually about 3,500 soldiers, but can be as large as 5,000 for the heavily armored units.
Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, has said he hopes to be able to cut the 80,000 soldiers through voluntary departures, without forcing troops to leave the service. But Army leaders have not ruled out forced reductions.
The cuts do not affect National Guard or Reserve brigades and units.
Officials said the decisions on the cuts were based on a variety of factors including required training resources, ranges, air space and infrastructure, as well as the need to put units near leadership and headquarters units.
Army Announces Force Structure and Stationing Decisions
June 25, 2013
Today the Department of the Army announced force structure and stationing decisions associated with the active component end-strength reduction of 80,000 soldiers, resulting in an Army end-strength of 490,000 by 2017. These reductions are consistent with fiscal constraints resulting from the Budget Control Act of 2011 and defense planning guidance issued in 2012, but do not reflect additional reductions that will be required if sequestration-driven funding reductions remain unmitigated.
Based on extensive analysis, the lessons of a dozen years of combat and the need to increase operational capability and flexibility, the Army will make the following changes to its force structure:
-Reorganize infantry and armor brigade combat teams (BCTs) to restore the third maneuver battalion and increase engineer and fires capability.
-Reduce active component BCTs from 45 modular to 33 reorganized BCTs.
-Continue growth in aviation, special operations, missile defense and cyber capabilities.
This active component force structure, in conjunction with Army National Guard and Army Reserve capabilities, supports the current defense strategy and meets combatant command requirements through regional alignment of forces and global responsiveness for contingencies. The decision to restructure armor and infantry BCTs helps mitigate the loss of BCTs by eliminating the headquarters but preserving 13 Armor and Infantry battalions that would be lost without the reorganization.
Stationing decisions necessitated by the reductions and reorganization were based on a comprehensive analysis of installation quantitative and qualitative considerations to include training, power projection, well-being, expansibility, regeneration, geographic distribution, environmental and socio-economic impacts, cost, and alignment with the defense strategy. Opportunities for community input were included through both the programmatic environment assessment public comment period and community listening sessions conducted in parallel with the military value analysis and qualitative stationing analysis, prior to the final decision.
Based on this comprehensive analysis, a BCT will inactivate at each of the following locations by 2017: Fort Bliss, Texas; Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort Campbell, Ky; Fort Carson, Colo.; Fort Drum, N.Y.; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Knox, Ky.; Fort Riley, Kan.; Fort Stewart, Ga., and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. Two BCTs, stationed at Baumholder and Grafenwoehr, Germany, will complete their inactivation in Fiscal Year 2013, leaving two BCTs in Europe to fulfill strategic commitments.
The reduction of 80,000 soldiers from the force represents a 14 percent reduction across the AC force. The specific impacts of these decisions on individual installations are being provided to affected Congressional delegations. The Army will conduct Congressional notification in accordance with Section 993, Title 10 U.S.C. prior to taking any irrevocable actions to implement these decisions.
Fort Campbell To Lose 4th BCT, 320 Soldiers In Restructuring
June 25, 2013
Fort Campbell will lose one of its brigades in a massive Army restructuring, but with additional battalions and other assets being parceled out to the remaining brigades, the net loss looks to be only about 320 soldiers.
In the restructuring, the Army will eliminate at least 12 combat brigades nationwide and relocate thousands of soldiers. It will also cancel $400 million in construction projects as the first wave of federal budget cuts takes aim at military communities around the country.
US Army Chief Gen. Ray Odierno announced Tuesday that the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division will be eliminated, and soldiers in all the deactivated brigades will be transferred to other units.
Fort Campbell
For both the post and surrounding communities fearing the worst a year ago, the result of reorganization looks to actually strengthen Fort Campbell’s overall importance and position in the new force structure.
Of 3,500 positions in 4th BCT, 2,700 will be “reinvested” through the other brigades.
Taken together with the additions to the other BCTs, other modifications to non-BCT units means the projected loss to Fort Campbell will be 320 soldiers, or a loss of only 1.1 percent, according to Army documents shared with The Leaf-Chronicle.
From its current strength of approximately 29,200, Fort Campbell will retain 28,900 soldiers in 2019, higher than the pre-9/11 figure of 22,900.
Back To Three
Nationwide, the Army will reduce its strength by 14 percent, from a wartime high of 570,000 to 490,000 over the next four years.
The Army has already eliminated two Europe-based BCTs and will eliminate 10 more BCTs “in a methodical manner” between now and 2017, while retaining 13 maneuver battalions through reorganization.
As previously reported by The Leaf-Chronicle, the plan discussed last year, involving the loss of a brigade at certain posts rather than opting for base closures, was to “plus up” existing infantry and armor brigades with an extra battalion each – a return to the situation that existed prior to the formation of brigade combat teams during the last reorganization, when every brigade had three maneuver battalions.
It is not confirmed at this time exactly when, how or where the two infantry battalions within 4th BCT – the 1st and 2nd Battalions, 506th Infantry Regiment – will be transitioned.
Sources told The Leaf-Chronicle that Fort Campbell and the 101st Airborne Division’s remaining BCTs – 1st, 2nd and 3rd – will likely add fire support and engineer assets along with the additional infantry battalions.
Fort Campbell is home to the seven brigades of the 101st Airborne Division, plus the 5th Special Forces Group, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and other units.
The 4th BCT is currently deployed to Afghanistan.
The core unit of the 4th BCT is the 506th Infantry Regiment “Currahees,” also known as the “Band of Brothers” regiment, has been featured in both the book by historian Stephen Ambrose and the hugely popular 2001 HBO miniseries.
The unit earned fame as one of the Army’s most decorated formations in World War II, participating in every major airborne operation, as well as in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Other BCTs Eliminated
The other eliminated BCTs are:
• 3rd BCT, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas
• 4th BCT, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
• 3rd BCT, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.
• 3rd BCT, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.
• 4th BCT, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas
• 3rd BCT, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Knox, Ky.
• 4th BCT, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.
• 2nd BCT, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.
• 4th Stryker BCT, 2nd Infantry Division, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.
Odierno said one additional brigade will likely be cut, but no final decisions have been made.
“I know in the local communities it will have its impact,” Odierno told reporters Tuesday. “But we’ve done our best to reach out to them so they understand what the impacts are. We’ve tried to make it as small an impact as possible for as many communities as we could.”
About The Cuts
Army leaders warned that more cuts – of as many as 100,000 more active duty, National Guard and Reserve soldiers – could be coming if Congress allows billions of dollars in automatic budget cuts under sequester to continue next year.
Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said his panel “will carefully examine the implications of this initial restructuring, but we all must understand that this is only the tip of the iceberg, much deeper cuts are still to come.”
Odierno said the Army tried to spread out the cuts geographically. He said Fort Knox scored the lowest in military value, but insisted the reduction was not the first step toward closing the base. He noted that about 4,000 civilian workers had been added there, as well as the Army’s recruiting command.
The overall cut in size has been known for more than a year, and Army leaders have been working on how to manage the reduction, conducting local community meetings across the country and releasing an extensive study on the issue earlier this year.
Odierno said he continues to hope that he will be able to cut the 80,000 soldiers largely through voluntary departures. He said he believes he will have to force several hundred officers to leave in order to get the proper number of soldiers at various ranks. But, if the automatic cuts go forward, Odierno said he would likely have to force soldiers out of the Army.