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<\/p>\nTwelve US-based brigades will be deactivated by 2017 to fit a slashed military budget. Despite cuts of over 80,000 troops, top brass assures that combat readiness will not suffer because the remaining brigades will have more battalions and firepower.<\/p>\n
\n Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno announced Tuesday plans
\n have been approved to inactivate 10 Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs)
\n with headquarters on the US territory. This comes under the $487
\n billion military budget cuts mandated in 2011 by the Budget
\n Control Act, a fourth round of military budget cuts since
\n President Barack Obama entered office.\n<\/p>\n
\n It has been announced that the final cut of the service in five
\n years is expected to be 80,000 service personnel, most of which
\n is to come through attrition, Orieno said giving the difference
\n from a wartime high of 570,000 soldiers to 490,000 by the end of
\n 2017.
\n <\/p>\n
\n Overall drop in the number of BCT will be from current 45 to 33,
\n as the US Army plans to return to about the same number of
\n enlisted servicemen it had before the Iraq war started, it was
\n announced at General Odierno\u2019s press conference.\u00a0
\n <\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n
\n A standard American infantry BCT currently has roughly 3,500
\n servicemen.\n<\/p>\n
\n The announced cuts, which are mainly to affect the active-duty
\n force, could also be regarded as reorganization of the military,
\n which has been conducting wars for the last 12 years. The Army
\n Reserve will remain at 205,000 soldiers and the state-based
\n National Guard militia will lose 8,000 soldiers, dropping to
\n 350,000 from 358,000.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n General Odierno explained that whereas the number of BCT is
\n decreasing, the number of battalions in them will grow from
\n present two to three thus increasing the Army\u2019s \u201ctooth-to-tail
\n ratio.\u201d<\/i>\n<\/p>\n
\n Besides an additional battalion, which is usually 600-800
\n soldiers, BCTs will have more engineers assigned. It is expected
\n that remaining brigades would be somewhere close to 5,000
\n personnel instead of the today\u2019s 3,500 servicemen and women.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe will add a third maneuver battalion and additional
\n engineer and fires capability to each of our armor and infantry
\n brigade combat teams in order to make them more lethal, more
\n flexible and more agile,\u201d<\/i> Odierno said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Reportedly, the decision to beef up the number of servicemen in a
\n BTC came as a recommendation from commanders with combat
\n experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. In their view personnel
\n proliferation will extend fighting capabilities of the brigades
\n on a battlefield.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n In this way the impact on combat power will be minimized and the
\n savings will be made at the expense of support units outside of
\n BCT and logistics.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n General Ray Odierno insists the cuts were thoroughly calculated
\n after thousands of hours of planning, personnel interviews and
\n simulated combat tests. Naturally, because the brigades are
\n slashed for economic reasons, the final selection was based on
\n cost and logistic effectiveness, required training resources,
\n ranges, airspace and infrastructure, as well as local economic
\n impacts once BCTs are gone, Odierno said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI know in the local communities it will have its impact,\u201d<\/i>
\n Odierno told reporters on Tuesday. \u201cBut we’ve done our best to
\n reach out to them so they understand what the impacts are. We’ve
\n tried to make it as small an impact as possible for as many
\n communities as we could,\u201d<\/i> he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The deactivation of 10 BCTs comes as the first round of military
\n reduction, because if the Congress does not reconsider austerity
\n in military spending, the number of service personnel will be
\n reduced even lower than the planned 490,000 troops.\n<\/p>\n
\n A member of the Armed Services Committee, Democrat US Congressman
\n Adam Smith warned that, \u201cThe real hazard to military
\n effectiveness will persist as long as Congress fails to act on
\n sequestration. If sequestration is not removed, then more
\n extensive force structure changes will need to be made.\u201d<\/i>\n<\/p>\n
\n The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Howard P.
\n McKeon, promised his panel \u201cwill carefully examine the
\n implications of this initial restructuring, but we all must
\n understand that this is only the tip of the iceberg, much deeper
\n cuts are still to come.\u201d<\/i>\n<\/p>\n
\n Whether they will be accompanied by same \u2018tooth-to-tail ratio
\n increases\u2019 remains to be seen.\n<\/p>\n