{"id":40974,"date":"2019-03-12T20:19:18","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T20:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/03\/12\/projected-military-end-strength-shrinks-in-2020-budget-as-army-faces-cuts\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T07:20:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:20:45","slug":"projected-military-end-strength-shrinks-in-2020-budget-as-army-faces-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/03\/12\/projected-military-end-strength-shrinks-in-2020-budget-as-army-faces-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"The Army is scaling back its projected growth plans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Pentagon is trimming its projected total <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2018\/12\/31\/new-in-2019-the-armys-got-a-big-end-strength-gap-to-fill-this-year\/\" target=_blank>military end strength<\/a> and shifting its force growth to better align against near-peers Russia and China, according to the 2020 budget released Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The total end strength planned for in the fiscal year<a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/federal-budget\/2019\/03\/12\/us-air-forces-2020-budget-hones-in-on-readiness-emerging-tech\/\"> 2020 budget<\/a> is for the military to reach 2,172,100 forces by year 2024, down from the 2,186,500 that had been planned to be reached by 2023 in the Pentagon\u2019s budget last year. That includes both active-duty and reserve component troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1538\" height=\"778\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/military_cuts_graphic-01.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-74549\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/military_cuts_graphic-01.jpg.jpg 1538w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/military_cuts_graphic-01.jpg.jpg?resize=300,152 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/military_cuts_graphic-01.jpg.jpg?resize=768,388 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/military_cuts_graphic-01.jpg.jpg?resize=1024,518 1024w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/military_cuts_graphic-01.jpg.jpg?resize=1536,777 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1538px) 100vw, 1538px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2018\/10\/08\/the-army-missed-its-end-strength-goal-this-year-can-it-make-up-the-setback\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ARM-AUSA-bigger-army.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">The Army missed its end strength goal this year. Can it make up the setback?<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Senior leaders discuss the fallout from missing this year&#039;s recruiting goal.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To trim and shift, over the next five years the Pentagon is proposing cutting the Army\u2019s total end strength from a previous goal of having 1,040,000 active and reserve forces by 2023, to having 1,016,500 on hand by 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy said the Army\u2019s projected cut also reflects financial reality and the need to slow its growth. The Army also does not want to lower recruiting standards after missing its recruiting goals by more than 6,000 forces last year.<\/p>\n\n\n<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link smg-interstitial-link--fallback wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/federal-budget\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__fallback-link\">For full budget coverage, click here <\/a><\/aside>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe need to grow,\u201d Mccarthy said. \u201cWe thought that a slower, more modest growth was effective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the Pentagon\u2019s new plan, the Navy, would grow to 414,000 forces by 2024, and the Air Force would gain a modest 100 additional troops. The Navy is under increased pressure to counter both China\u2019s growth in the Pacific and increased Russian expeditionary naval presence, particularly its submarine presence, throughout the European theater of operations; the Air Force will be adding extra roles as it moves forward on establishing the administration\u2019s new space force.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2018\/09\/21\/the-army-is-supposed-to-be-growing-but-this-year-it-didnt-at-all\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/42435698024_9b0c832e00_k.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">The Army is supposed to be growing, but this year, it didn\u2019t at all<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Army&#039;s end strength showed no net gain in 2018, after the service missed its recruiting goal by 6,500.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The budget \u201cmoves past the Desert Storm model,\u201d said Defense Department Comptroller Elaine McCusker. &#8220;Deterring or defeating great power aggression is a fundamentally different challenge than the regional conflict against rogue states that were the basis of our planning constructs for the last 25 years. &#8220;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cChina and Russia will not fight us the way we have gotten used to fighting,&#8221; McCusker said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Army scaled back its five-year growth plans in the proposed budget released Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,16,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3350],"class_list":["post-40974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"5QKKRWQGCRC7ZLISGPMDCBXA5I","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2019\/03\/12\/projected-military-end-strength-shrinks-in-2020-budget-as-army-faces-cuts\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Army is scaling back its projected growth plans - Air Force TImes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Army scaled back its five-year growth plans in the proposed budget released Tuesday.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Army is scaling back its projected growth plans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Army scaled back its five-year growth plans in the proposed budget released Tuesday.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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