After coping with years of uncertain budgets, Army Secretary Mark T. Esper told an audience at the Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting in Washington that the service is poised to modernize and transform itself into a more lethal force.
“We have the vision, strategy and leadership in place to ensure that the Army remains prepared to deploy, fight and win our nation’s wars today and in the future,” Esper said, as reported on AUSA’s web site.
Esper elaborated upon plans to bolster recruiting, in light of the 6,500-recruit shortfall during fiscal year 2018, which ended Sept. 30. U.S. Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) will have to come up with a plan to “overhaul recruiting,” he said. The scenario would include an increase in the number of recruiters.
The Army also plans to revamp aging training doctrines to reflect the changing nature of warfare. A new version of Multi-Domain Operations will take effect in the coming months, to go along with the two months added to infantry basic training.
Modernization will continue to focus upon six modernization priorities which would place the latest iterations of combat vehicles, automatic weapons, air-defense systems and a strategic long-range cannon into the hands of war fighters, Esper said.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley also addressed the audience, saying that the service is “committed to a new rifle and squad automatic weapon” to replace the M16 assault rifle and M4 carbine. The new weapon likely will fire a 6.8mm round, Milley said. The initial purchase order would be roughly 100,000 weapons.
Milley also outlined the key role the newly created Futures Command would assume, to include oversight of the modernization and doctrine processes. The necessary change would require a different approach to the way the personnel system handles career paths.
