ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The general officer in charge of recruiting the next generation of soldiers said the shrinking pool of young people who are eligible to serve represents “a problem in our nation.”

Gen. Paul Funk, commander of the Army Training and Doctrine Command, said the two biggest hurdles to qualifying young people for service are obesity and addiction, which he considers “national security issues that we’ve got to address.” 

The Association of the U.S. Army’s Coffee Series will feature Gen. Paul Funk, commander of Army Training and Doctrine Command, on June 2.

The in-person event will take place at AUSA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The event opens at 6:30 a.m. with coffee and networking. Funk is scheduled to speak at 7:20 a.m.

The U.S. needs to pursue a “clear-eyed” strategy that recognizes the world is unsafe today and will be similarly unsafe in the future, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former Army chief of staff, told a Senate committee.

Florida National Guard soldiers evacuated from Ukraine at the start of Russia’s invasion are now training Ukrainian troops on how to use American equipment.

The training is taking place in Germany, Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby said.

In preparing for war, the Army cannot assume anything, the commander of Army Forces Command said.

“We cannot assume we’ll have the time to train. We cannot assume we’ll be familiar with the terrain,” Gen. Michael Garrett said during the recent Maneuver Warfighter Conference at Fort Benning, Georgia. “We cannot assume we’ll know where we will fight next. We cannot afford to orient our sights only along one theater.”

Because of that uncertainty, the Army must train “relentlessly,” he said.

Army leaders must seek innovative solutions and embrace technology as they prepare their soldiers to fight on a tougher, more lethal future battlefield, the commander of Army Training and Doctrine Command said.

“The Army of 2030 requires soldiers and leaders who are highly trained, disciplined and fit, with the knowledge, skills and behaviors to operate advanced technological systems to fight in multidomain environments,” Gen. Paul Funk said during the recent Maneuver Warfighter Conference at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Business as usual will no longer be enough, Funk said.

Army space leaders are trying to educate soldiers about how the force heavily relies on space-enabled capabilities.

Non-space soldiers may not realize how much of their equipment relies on space-enabled capabilities and how those capabilities enhance Army combat operations, said Robert Marquez, space training division chief for the Army Space and Missile Defense Command. Soldiers not in space jobs also may not realize how adversaries are already trying to take advance of space.

The Army’s Space and Missile Defense School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, established in 2010 to train and educate forces and develop doctrine to support combatant commands, has evolved.

There was once just a single course for Functional Area 40, a career field for space operations officers. Today, the school has 22 different courses and provides support to combat training centers and a variety of exercises.