The Army is focused on transformation as it works to build the force of 2040, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said.

“The Army is transforming in three different time frames,” Wormuth said during the recent 2024 Defense News Conference. “There's the 10 years and beyond timeframe, where we are really focused on our new Army warfighting concept 2040, then we've got sort of the midterm time period, … [and] then we're trying to look at the here and now.”

As part of its efforts, the Army is looking to up its investment in unmanned aircraft systems as well as systems to counter those drones, Wormuth said. “When we look at what's happening in Ukraine, … clearly the role of drones, the role of capabilities to take down drones, that is going to be hugely important.”

A major push in the Army’s modernization effort is “transforming in contact,” an initiative where soldiers test systems and processes to provide feedback to the Army. 

“We're giving our soldiers technology that we're already working to field … at the brigade level and letting them experiment with it to tell us what works [and] to help us develop new tactics, techniques and procedures … in different kinds of environments,” Wormuth said. “Transforming in contact is helping us to figure out how to make the best of things that we think we’re already going to buy.”

The Army also continues to work through a tough recruiting environment as it tries to sustain and grow the force. Wormuth remains optimistic but realistic about the Army’s ability to reach its fiscal 2024 recruiting goal of 55,000 new recruits plus 5,000 contracts in the delayed entry program.

“I'm feeling very good about the likelihood that the Army is going to meet its recruiting goal this year,” she said. “We've got three more weeks in the fiscal year, so we're almost done. Recruiting for the United States Army is going to continue to be very challenging.”

Establishing “irreversible momentum” on the recruiting front is top of mind for Wormuth.

“Probably the most important thing is making sure that the transformation of our recruiting enterprise that we have been implementing achieves what I would call irreversible momentum,” she said. “I think that is an existential challenge for the United States Army.”