{"id":25112,"date":"2019-08-19T21:30:42","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T21:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/08\/19\/the-armys-outgoing-leadership-where-the-service-stands-and-where-its-aiming\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:12:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:12:05","slug":"the-armys-outgoing-leadership-where-the-service-stands-and-where-its-aiming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2019\/08\/19\/the-armys-outgoing-leadership-where-the-service-stands-and-where-its-aiming\/","title":{"rendered":"The Army\u2019s outgoing leadership: Where the service stands, and where it\u2019s aiming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the top Army leadership changes and the newcomers grow accustomed to their roles, there remains much to be done to prepare the Army\u2019s brigade combat teams and individual soldiers for potentially the next big fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wheels set in motion over the past four years to address what outgoing Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley<\/a> saw as a “fundamental change in the character of war\u201d are still turning, and Milley\u2019s replacement appears set on maintaining that momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Milley took over four years ago, lawmakers, think tankers and soldiers told him they needed to retool and overhaul the institution to modernize the force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone said that there\u2019s no way in four years you\u2019re going to be able to actually produce the new equipment and the doctrine in the organizations. That won\u2019t happen in your four years as chief,\u201d Milley told Army Times in an interview before the Aug. 9 change of command ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd they\u2019re right,” Milley added. “They said the most you can do is really crank on readiness to get the current force to the highest level of readiness that you can do. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve been doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, about 50 percent of the Army\u2019s 58 brigade combat teams across the force are at the highest levels of readiness. That\u2019s up from about 33 percent four years ago<\/a>, but the Army\u2019s goal is double that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not where we need to be,” Milley said. “I would still like to shoot for 66 percent on a day-to-day basis and I think it\u2019s a realistic goal. We\u2019ve had good budgets so it\u2019s dependent upon two primary endpoints \u2014 money and time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf things stay good on the budget and stay good on op tempo, we\u2019ll reach that 66 percent in the next, I don\u2019t know, call it 24 to 36 months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milley is taking over as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, so meeting that goal now falls to Gen. James C. McConville<\/a>, the Army\u2019s new top officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel A. Dailey<\/a> has also stepped down, retiring from the service and handing the reins to Command Sgt. Maj. Michael A. Grinston<\/a>, who is now the Army\u2019s 16th SMA. A decorated artilleryman, Grinston is coming from the senior enlisted role with Army Forces Command, the provider of campaign-ready land forces to combatant commanders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That experience will help Grinston as the Army is still actively engaged in combat in the Central Command area of responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dwelling on deployments<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I became the chief, we were really struggling with maintaining the operational readiness rates, the fully mission capable rates of the various vehicle fleets, both air and ground,\u201d Milley said. \u201cToday, that\u2019s much better. And the big difference is the incredible work that Army Material Command has done and the units have done in terms of maintaining the equipment, but really significant is getting a flow of spare parts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally, readiness is measured by training and equipping of the force. But for a people-based organization like the Army, \u201cthe long pole in the tent for readiness\u201d involves manning, according to Milley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo manning is the real key thing to maintaining high levels of readiness,\u201d Milley said. Over the past several chiefs, non-deployable rates for soldiers hit highs of 16 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t sound like much, but out of a million-strong Army, that\u2019s a 160,000 people who can\u2019t get on a plane to go,” Lt. Gen. Thomas Seamands, Army deputy chief of staff for personnel, said at a June event in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, the new \u201cdeploy or get out\u201d<\/a> policy made deployability a condition of employment. It said that if a service member is non-deployable for a period of 12 months or more, they\u2019re subject to being separated from the armed forces. That policy has dropped the non-deployable rate to roughly 5-6 percent on average across most Army units, according to Milley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And although the wars in the Middle East are ongoing, the deployment-to-dwell ratios over the past year and a half show a significant decrease in the toll those conflicts take on the force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Army Special Forces, for instance, now has a 1:1.9 ratio, meaning for whatever amount of time they\u2019re deployed, the soldiers spend almost double that at home station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going back to 2011, Army Special Operations Command\u2019s most well-rested forces were getting a dwell ratio of only one-to-one, according <\/a>to the service. Other oft-utilized soldiers are looking better rested these days as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terminal High Altitude Area Defense and Patriot missile battery troops have a 1:5 and a 1:1.8 dwell ratio, respectively. Those numbers don\u2019t count forward-based assets at places like South Korea or in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For non-forward-based infantry brigade combat teams, which have dealt the most with the Afghanistan and Iraq missions, the dwell ratio stands at 1:2.3. When forward-based IBCTs are included, the number jumps to 1:3.7. And Army Guard IBCTs have a 1:5 dwell ratio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
FORT IRWIN, Calif. — Soldiers from the Expeditionary Cyber Support Detachment, 782nd Military Intelligence Battalion (Cyber), provide offensive cyber operations in support of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division during a seizure of a town at the National Training Center during Rotation 18-03 on January 18. (U.S. Army photo by Capt. Adam Schinder)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSpecial operations have a very high ops tempo. And recently, I think you\u2019re looking at, we\u2019ll call it the last 24 months, the majority of casualties killed and wounded have been special operation forces,\u201d Milley said. \u201cIf you include the forces that are working with them, the conventional forces, then that would account for all the causalities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those deaths are mostly happening in Afghanistan, a war that is edging close to being two decades old. The conflict is nowhere near as costly as the surge years circa 2010 and 2011, but it remains an ongoing factor in determining ops tempo and readiness rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McConville\u2019s first message to the force echoed many of the same priorities his predecessor has delivered. A career aviator who commanded the 101st Airborne Division, McConville is stepping into Milley\u2019s former job after serving as the vice chief, meaning he\u2019s overseen and assisted with much of what has been done so far to prepare the United States for an era of renewed great power competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How big of an Army do you need?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming into the role as chief, Milley pushed hard to grow the size of the Army. His team looked at how big the service has historically needed to be to fight the kind of major wars the new National Defense Strategy is focused towards, while still maintaining the campaign momentum underway in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbout 725,000 in 18 divisions in the regular Army was the size of the Army when I was commissioned as a second lieutenant 40 years ago,\u201d Milley said, comparing that force to the much smaller one he inherited as chief and the size that is needed for the new NDS. \u201cIf you do the analysis \u2014 and we\u2019ve done all kinds of analysis on it \u2014 you get a size of the force that is significantly bigger than the low numbers that were being discussed four years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service is striving to grow to a 500,000-strong active-duty force<\/a> by the end of the next decade, and it ended 2019 with 478,000 troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when Milley came in as chief four years ago, there was talk of scaling the Army down to about 420,000 soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were even some people saying take the active-duty regular Army down to 320,\u201d he said. \u201cMy predecessor fought hard against that. I fought hard against that. Congress was very supportive. DoD was supportive. White House was supportive when we had the change of administration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think those conversations are largely over,” he added. “They\u2019re never completely over. If the budget were to go into these budget control acts sequestration, then I think those conversations would come back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to meet the Army\u2019s 500,000-soldier goal, the service has been pushing hard on recruiting. But the Army\u2019s effort fell short last year, missing its recruiting goal by several thousand new troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The old plan was to grow the force by 4,000 troops per year. Now, senior leaders are looking at 2,000 additional troops<\/a> per year as the target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe went after 70,000 [recruits] last year. That\u2019s big numbers,” the outgoing SMA, Dailey, told Army Times. “We went after 68,000 this year. That\u2019s big numbers. These are like 2007, 2009 numbers when we were growing the Army in rapid scale and in the heat of combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
U.S. Army Infantry soldiers-in-training assigned to Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 198th Infantry Brigade, conduct close quarter battle (CQB) training. (Patrick A. Albright\/Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This year, the Army is on track to bring 68,000 soldiers into the active force, about 15,000 into the Reserve, and 39,000 into the Guard, according to officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But with a booming economy and historically low unemployment rates, potential recruits aren\u2019t clamoring to join up as much as past years. By focusing on 22 major cities, such as Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles, and dialing into old or forgotten markets, the Army says it\u2019s found a way to tap into more potential soldiers without resorting to waivers like it has in past years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of that also involved taking the recruiting mission this year and making it an Army-wide initiative and not just one relegated to Recruiting Command, Dailey said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe environment in America changes every day,\u201d Dailey said. \u201cThe Amazons and Walmarts will come replace you. So it made us realize that we\u2019ve got to change the way we market. We\u2019ve got to find out where the markets are. We\u2019ve got to get back into some markets. We\u2019ve got to create new markets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Army leaders have made headway with city and school officials, staged events and even put up an Army team for E-Sports competitions to get into the gaming market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service also relocated its marketing division from Arlington, Virginia, to Chicago, where traditionally some of the largest marketing firms in America reside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you want to play in somebody\u2019s backyard, you\u2019ve got to go to their backyard. You can\u2019t live down the street and play baseball with everybody else,\u201d Dailey said. \u201cThat\u2019s why Army Futures Command went down to Austin, [Texas].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modernizing a maneuver force<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That new Austin-based four-star command is a cornerstone of the Army\u2019s modernization initiative. The command is designed to streamline and speed up the acquisition process, helping companies bend metal and get new equipment to troops faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe determined that there was too much bureaucracy, too much overheard. It wasn\u2019t streamlined,\u201d Milley said. \u201cThere was no unity of command, no unity of effort. Priorities weren\u2019t straight, clear and being adhered to. Resources weren\u2019t piled in there. So we had to overhaul that whole thing. One of the things it led to was Army Futures Command which you saw open its doors a year ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the command hasn\u2019t actually produced anything yet, it has set up its modernization priorities: long-range precision fires, next-generation combat vehicles, future vertical lift platforms, a mobile and expeditionary Army network, air missile defense capabilities and soldier lethality. Underneath each of those are dozens of specific programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those priorities are unlikely to change during McConville\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people who\u2019ve tried. But no,” Milley said. \u201cI mean the whole point of priorities is to keep them narrowly focused.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The priorities were derived from how the U.S. Army fights and where the service has gaps. \u201cThe American way of war, so to speak,\u201d Milley said, is through \u201cmaneuver warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
RODRIGUEZ LIVE FIRE COMPLEX, Republic of Korea \u2013 Soldiers with 2nd Squadron, 13th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team (Rotational), conduct hands-on training with the FIM-92 Stinger, a man-portable air defense system, to enhance readiness, March 14. The 2nd Infantry Division\/ROK-U.S. Combined Division hosted a mobile training team from U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery School to certify designated teams on proper use of the Stinger air defense missile. (U.S. Army photo by Mr. Pak, Chin U., 2ID\/RUCD Public Affairs)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of people think that we are an attrition-based force. We are not. We are a maneuver force. We highly value maneuver.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maneuver is the combination of fires and strategic and tactical movement. The Army\u2019s strategic movement is largely accomplished through the Air Force and Navy, so the Army gets to focus mostly on the tactical part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why the very first priority is to reinvigorate fires and specifically we saw a gap in long-range precision fires,\u201d Milley said. \u201cWe used to have an incredible capability with artillery and we ripped that apart over the last 20 years in order to convert a lot of artillery units and infantry units and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s the tactical movement portion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur rotary aircraft and our ground vehicles are very old. The M1 [Abrams] tank, for example, was brought into service when I was commissioned as a second lieutenant 40 years ago,” Milley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the service needs new tracked vehicles and lift platforms. Tying it all together is supposed to be a sophisticated information sharing network that can withstand the cyber attacks of future wars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A Stryker from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment fitted with the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station-Javelin negotiates the terrain of the Hohenfels Training Area, Germany. (Spc. Robert Douglas\/Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But none of that matters if you can\u2019t defend your soldiers from the missile attacks and rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft that a peer competitor would field. That means the service needed to reinvigorate its missile defense capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theater-level assets, like THAAD and the Patriot batteries, still exist. But the Army let unit-level air defenses wither over the past two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe as an Army became very, very comfortable with being protected by the U.S. Air Force,\u201d Milley said. \u201cAnd the U.S. Air Force has swept the skies very quickly … That won\u2019t hold true if you\u2019re talking about China or Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last priority is getting new gear to soldiers, including new rifles, night vision optics, body armor and even advanced simulators to offer realistic combat training for everyone from the dismounted soldier to a tank commander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe already do it with pilots. We spend you know $10 million or something like that to train an F16, a F35 pilot,\u201d Milley said. \u201cWell we spend $10,000 a year to train a rifle squad. So we can do better than that as a nation. And the synthetic training environment<\/a> offers us an opportunity to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAgain, we\u2019re a soldier centric force,” he added. “We\u2019re a labor centric force. Not necessarily platform centric.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019re not where we need to be,” Gen. 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