The United States Army has announced that it is cutting the size of its force by a whopping 24,000 personnel as the military service struggles with recruitment.
The move is part of a major restructuring plan that the Army says will help to strengthen the military for fighting in future wars.
According to an Army document published Tuesday, the almost 5% of jobs cut will mostly affect posts that have remained empty and not actual soldiers
“The Army is not asking current soldiers to leave,” the document states.
“As the Army builds back-end strength over the next few years, most installations will likely see an increase in the number of soldiers actually stationed there.”
Most of the jobs being slashed are related to counter-insurgency positions that grew during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but are not in high demand today.
There also will be about 10,000 posts cut from cavalry squadrons, Stryker brigade combat teams, infantry brigade combat teams, and security force assistance brigades, which are used to train foreign forces.
The Army “is currently significantly over-structured,” according to the document.
The document notes that there aren’t enough soldiers to fill existing units.
The service is also looking to optimize itself for large-scale or multidomain combat operations.
The move is a shift away from a close combat, counter-insurgency structure.
The service is currently structured to have up to 494,000 soldiers.
However, the total number of active duty soldiers is about 445,000.
Rather than filling all of the vacant positions, the Army is looking to eliminate a large number of them.
The new plan has Army leaders looking to recruit enough troops through Fiscal Year 2029 to reach a goal of 470,000 active-duty soldiers.
Despite the cuts, the Army said it is looking to add another 7,500 troops for other critical missions.
The recruitments will include positions in air defense and counter-drone units and five new task forces around the world with enhanced cyber, intelligence, and long-range strike capabilities.
The U.S. military missed its recruiting goals in 2023 by 41,000.
The missed target saw the military going into the new year facing a recruiting crisis, a Pentagon official said in December.
In December, military leaders addressed the recruitment crisis at the House Armed Services Committee hearing.
They said a competitive job market, declining eligibility, and COVID-19 school closures impacted their ability to recruit, among other things.
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