In an ongoing effort to balance the force, the Army is seeking about 300 eligible infantry, armor, field artillery or engineer lieutenants to apply for voluntary branch transfer to one of several understrength branches and functional areas.

This offer from Army Human Resources Command is an expansion of the Officer Rebranching Program, a pilot that kicked off last January. This time, the Army is looking for about 300 eligible lieutenants to transfer to the adjutant general, air defense, finance, logistics or signal corps, or into one of four functional areas including information technology engineer, space operations, public affairs and simulations operations, according to an Army news release.

The current offer applies to year group 22 lieutenants in the infantry, armor, field artillery or engineer branches. Last year, the offer was open only to year group 21 infantry and armor lieutenants, the release states.

Applications will be accepted from Jan. 7 through Feb. 17, according to the release. Each branch has a designated cap on the number of officers allowed to transfer out or into a particular career field.

“Last year’s pilot program was successful as more than 130 [year group] 21 lieutenants voluntarily transferred from the infantry and armor branches into the adjutant general, finance and signal corps,” Maj. Thomas Mussmann, a readiness analyst for Human Resources Command’s Force Shaping Directorate, said in the release. “By offering more options this year we hope to get greater participation and have a greater impact on readiness.”

Rebranching is a tool the Army uses when it detects a misalignment between manning requirements and available officer inventory. Like branch detailing and the Voluntary Transfer Incentive Program, the Officer Rebranching Program seeks to rebalance the active component force, Mussmann said. Unlike the Voluntary Transfer Incentive Program, the Officer Rebranching Program occurs a year earlier on the officer’s timeline and offers multiple choice transfers, the release states.

“The ideal candidate for this program is someone who enjoys the Army but is looking for a change from their current career field. Maybe they’re looking for company command time but in a branch with a long wait queue, or they didn’t get their initial branch of choice upon commissioning,” Maj. Jesse Lansford, a senior marketplace analyst at Human Resources Command, said in the release. “This is a retention tool for those who want to stay and serve rather than to separate and seek opportunities elsewhere.”

Eligible lieutenants who wish to volunteer should log into the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army portal, locate the Talent Management Soldier Work Center within the self-service window and select “Closed Marketplace Preferences” to begin the rebranching process.

“Offering these opportunities allows us to retain individual officers at the beginning of their careers while rebalancing the force for long-term readiness,” Col. Shay O’Neal, director of Human Resources Command’s Readiness Division, said in the release. “The Army will eventually face shortages at the battalion, brigade, division and corps level if we don’t shape the force now.”

Results of the rebranching should be published in early March.

For more information, read MILPER Message 25-456 here.