ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

As the pandemic’s year mark approaches, the COVID-19 vaccine rollout showcases the “light at the end of the tunnel” and chance for a “new normal,” Army senior leaders said.

“Vaccines are among the most important accomplishments in modern medicine,” Lt. Gen. R. Scott Dingle, Army surgeon general, said Feb. 22 during a virtual town hall with soldiers and family members. “They have saved more lives around the world than any other medical innovation, including antibiotics and surgery itself,” he said.

The Army’s modernization efforts remain as critical as ever in 2021 amid a high operations tempo and growing competition from adversaries such as Russia and China, the Army’s top general said.

“The Army must always be ready to fight and win,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said Jan. 19 during The AUSA Noon Report, a webinar hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army. “In this era of great-power competition, the Army must always be ready to compete to aggressively protect our national interests.”

The Army must continue to juggle a high demand for troops around the world with an urgent need to modernize the force, the service’s top general said. 

Soldiers remain busy overseas and at home, from combat operations to COVID-19 response missions, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said. Ideally, the active-duty force would number 540,000 to 550,000 soldiers, he said.  

Military leaders are taking on a “holistic review” of troops’ footprint around the world as the U.S. remains focused on “great-power competition,” according to the Pentagon’s top general.

“There’s a very strong argument to be made that we may have forces in places that they shouldn’t be, and we may have forces that are needed in places that they’re not right now,” Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Dec. 2 while speaking with the Brookings Institution. 

Soldiers’ health and fitness are part of the Army’s modernization plan, and that includes the Army National Guard, whose top NCO advised soldiers to “start taking care of your body” to be able to meet the rigors of service.

“When I ask soldiers about modernization, the first thing they want to talk about is equipment and facilities,” Command Sgt. Maj. John Sampa, the Army National Guard command sergeant major, said Dec. 2 during The AUSA Noon Report, a webinar series hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army.

The Heritage Foundation’s “2021 Index of U.S. Military Strength” gives the U.S. Army high marks for improved readiness but once again scores the service as “marginal” because those readiness gains continue to be offset by ongoing struggles to modernize and grow the force.

The Army isn’t alone. The report also rates the Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and U.S. nuclear capabilities as marginal. The new U.S. Space Force was not assessed in the 2021 report.

The Heritage Foundation’s “2020 Index of U.S. Military Strength” once again scores the U.S. Army as “marginal” because dramatic improvements in brigade combat team readiness are offset by continuing struggles to modernize the force and grow troop levels. 

The Army isn’t alone. The report also rates the Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and U.S. nuclear capabilities as marginal. The new U.S. Space Force is not ranked in the 2020 report. 

The Army has managed to balance its priorities of readiness, modernization and soldiers’ safety during a “challenging” year, senior leaders said.

Despite challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, junior leaders “found ways to generate readiness” while protecting their troops, according to Gen. Michael Garrett, commanding general of Army Forces Command.

From a global pandemic to no-notice deployments to the Middle East, the Army continues to prepare for any crisis or mission, the service’s top operations officer said.

“We must be ready for any planned and unplanned crisis,” Lt. Gen. Charles Flynn, deputy Army chief of staff for operations, said July 22 during The AUSA Noon Report, a webinar series hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army.

A new report looking at the long-range military implications of the COVID-19 pandemic finds the Army well prepared because of changes in operational doctrine and training.

An analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments says the Army’s evolving Multi-Domain Operations concept is a way to maintain a form of social distancing through its emphasis on “dis-aggregated, distributed units with varying degrees of connectivity conducting operations across the battlespace.”