ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES 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.

Army leaders are continuing to address critical issues facing troops today and press for change as part of the service’s efforts to take care of soldiers and their families. 

“There's a lot of great things going on in the Army, but there's also some things that we need to address,” said Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville.

Speaking Oct. 1 at the virtual Fires Conference hosted by the Fires Center of Excellence at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, McConville addressed issues such as suicide prevention, racism and extremism, and sexual harassment. 

The military’s diversity and inclusion efforts are not just for “diversity’s sake,” but are critical to the readiness and capability of the joint force, the military’s top general said. 

“It’s diversity to improve the system, improve the military, improve our problem-solving capabilities and improve our warfighting readiness in order to protect and defend the Constitution,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said Sept. 24 during a virtual town hall.

The Army National Guard will play a key role as the Army continues to develop its Multi-Domain Operations concept, which incorporates land, air, sea, space and cyber in the future fight, a senior leader said.

Lt. Gen. Eric Wesley, deputy commander of Army Futures Command, said the Army will need to collectively plan for potential cross-leveling between active-duty and Army Guard units in the years ahead.

Deploying with a force that included active-duty, Army National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers highlighted the “continued strength and mutual dependency” of the total Army, a senior Army leader said.

“It was such a joy to be able to integrate [them] into our force structure, and to have our soldiers and units that are normally assigned to us learn from their example,” said Col. Patrick Sullivan, commander of the 20th Engineer Brigade, during a recent media roundtable at the Pentagon.

The Army is seeking modest growth in the size of the force in 2020 while increasing funding for training and modernization programs.

The fiscal 2020 budget requested by the Army is $182 billion, a modest 2.5 percent increase over current spending. The overall defense budget would jump from $716 billion in 2019 to $750 billion in 2020 under the plan unveiled March 12.

Army Secretary-nominee Mark T. Esper says he’s fully committed to Total Force readiness.

“I know all three components fairly well,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee. He served 10 years in the Regular Army followed by stints in the Virginia National Guard and Army Reserve before retiring in 2007 with more than 25 years of military service.

“In the last 16 years of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, if we have learned anything, we learned that the Guard and Reserve are not just a strategic reserve but are really critical operational components,” he said.

The Army chief of staff remains hopeful of growing the Total Force to more than 1.1 million soldiers, about 100,000 more than now authorized by law.

Testifying before a Senate panel, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the Army’s 39th chief of staff, said he’d like to see the Regular Army grow to 540,000 to 550,000 soldiers in the next decade, while the Army National Guard would grow to 350,000 to 355,000 and the Army Reserve would grow to 205,000 to 209,000.

The 2017 National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law Friday by President Barack Obama. The bill brings an end to the Army’s troop drawdown and provides soldiers with the first pay raise in five years that matches the average private sector increase.