New Army Vice ‘Extremely Concerned’ On Readiness

New Army Vice ‘Extremely Concerned’ On Readiness
New Army Vice ‘Extremely Concerned’ On Readiness

AUSA: Expanding on Chief of Staff Ray Odierno’s concerns, the Army’s new Vice-Chief of Staff detailed how “fragile” the service’s readiness is in the face of a 2016 sequester. “We’re in a much better place than we were… a year ago,” said Gen. Daniel Allyn, who until August headed the Army’s main readiness outfit, Forces…

490K Soldiers May Not Be Enough:  Odierno

490K Soldiers May Not Be Enough:  Odierno
490K Soldiers May Not Be Enough: Odierno

AUSA: 490,000 Army soldiers may not be enough to cope with an increasingly unstable world. Two years ago — before the rise of the Islamic State, before Russia’s stealth invasion of Ukraine, before Ebola erupted in Africa — Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno testified that an army of 490,000 active-duty troops, 350,000 Guard soldiers, and…

Tiered Readiness Returns In Army 2015 Budget; Not All Brigades Ready to Fight

Tiered Readiness Returns In Army 2015 Budget; Not All Brigades Ready to Fight
Tiered Readiness Returns In Army 2015 Budget; Not All Brigades Ready to Fight

PENTAGON: Last year, the sudden budget cuts known as sequestration forced the Army to cancel crucial training for 78 percent of its combat brigades. The budget request for 2015, released today, buys back a lot of that lost readiness — but not all. In fact, the Army has now officially resigned itself to what it…

Service Chiefs Critique Hagel’s SCMR: ‘Rosy’ & ‘Dangerous’ Assumptions

Service Chiefs Critique Hagel’s SCMR: ‘Rosy’ & ‘Dangerous’ Assumptions
Service Chiefs Critique Hagel’s SCMR: ‘Rosy’ & ‘Dangerous’ Assumptions

CAPITOL HILL: We’ve had nearly two years of hearings about how hard the automatic budget cuts called sequestration would hit the Department of Defense. Yesterday, we saw something new. For the first time, the uniformed chiefs of all four services publicly told Congress that they have big problems with their civilian bosses’ plan to cope…

Army Adopting ‘Progressive,’ AKA Tiered Readiness: Vice-Chief Campbell

Army Adopting ‘Progressive,’ AKA Tiered Readiness: Vice-Chief Campbell
Army Adopting ‘Progressive,’ AKA Tiered Readiness: Vice-Chief Campbell

Cancelled training. Deferred maintenance. Grounded aircraft. That’s been the damage to military readiness from the mandatory budget cuts known as sequestration in 2013. Now the Vice-Chief of Staff of the Army says the service may have to keep many units at lower levels of readiness for years. This is not a short-term expedient but new…