Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley delivered an upbeat message Jan. 16 on the state of the force. “We have made tremendous progress in the last several years,” he said. “We have recovered from depleted levels of readiness brought about by sustained periods of conflict in the current wars and also by reduced levels of defense spending over a period of many, many years.”
A breakfast with Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley and evening lectures with the current U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command commander and a retired four-star who led the Joint Special Operations Command are on tap in January at events hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army’s Institute of Land Warfare.
Online registration is open for all three events.
Army leaders have made preliminary decisions on what programs should be cut to help pay for priority modernization efforts but the Defense Department has yet to weigh in on the recommendations, said Lt. Gen. James F. Pasquarette, deputy chief of staff G-8, who heads the Army’s resources and planning.
For advice on everything from online housing referrals to grocery delivery, the Army is enlisting the help of its youngest soldiers to guide decisions on how installation services might be delivered using smart technology.
Agility will be the key to meeting the logistical challenges of providing for the warfighter on a more dispersed battlefield, DoD’s chief logistician says.
Army Lt. Gen. Darrell K. Williams, director of the Defense Logistics Agency, said support for the U.S. military’s global mission has moved from that of a regional static supply chain to one that can respond more quickly through strong partnerships with all the services across the globe.
The Army National Guard is “now on a solid path to recovering” lost readiness, the Guard director told Congress.
Lt. Gen. Timothy J. Kadavy, who has headed the Army Guard since March 2015, said the National Guard has suffered like the rest of the military from budget reductions and complications from temporary funding extensions but is now regaining momentum. “This year we began to recapture readiness and improve lethality,” he said.
By the end of next year, the Army will have built five of its six planned security force assistance brigades, new units designed to do away with the “ad hoc” method of advising foreign forces the Army has relied upon for 16 years.
This Forum impresses upon industry leadership the urgent need for strong, ready landpower forces and to enlist support in communicating the landpower story.
