ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The first day of the largest annual land warfare exposition in North America features a keynote address by Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, the unveiling of the winners of the Army’s Best Squad Competition, and much more.

The Association of the U.S. Army’s 2023 Annual Meeting and Exposition is being held for the 20th time at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The three-day in-person event will take place Oct. 9–11 and feature more than 750 exhibits in five halls on both levels of the convention center.

Land is the domain where battles are decided, and as the world’s premier land power, the U.S. Army will remain a relevant force in any future conflict, the service’s senior leaders said.

At the inaugural event in the Strategic Landpower Dialogue series hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George enumerated the ways in which the Army will remain a winning land power.

The Army expects to miss its recruiting goal for the second year in a row, but Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said the service is making headway in its struggle to attract talented young people into the force.

For fiscal 2023, which ends Sept. 30, the Army set what Wormuth describes as a “stretch goal” of recruiting 65,000 new soldiers. “We’re not going to make that goal,” she said July 20 during the Aspen Institute’s annual Aspen Security Forum. “But the good news is we are going to recruit more young Americans into the Army than we did last year.”

The Army will fall short of its recruiting goal again this year, but leaders are encouraged by the success of several new recruiting initiatives and improvements made within the recruiting force.

While a flurry of programs and incentives have built some positive momentum in the all-out effort to boost recruiting, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said that the recruiting challenge continues to be “the only real significant dark cloud on the Army’s horizon.”

In their first appearance on Capitol Hill to discuss the Army’s fiscal 2024 budget request, the Army’s top leaders said they are proud of the service’s accomplishments and are ready for the work ahead.  

“We’ve accomplished a lot this year, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said before the House Appropriations defense subcommittee. “The FY ‘24 budget enables us to support the National Defense Strategy, to provide ready forces to the combatant commanders and to take care of our people.” 

Today’s young people, or Generation Z, could benefit from the Army’s opportunities, if only they were more aware of them, the service’s top civilian leader said.

“The market research that we've done indicates that a lot of Americans just don't understand the military, don't understand all of the opportunities that the U.S. Army, in particular, offers,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said.