{"id":28350,"date":"2018-10-08T11:29:21","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T11:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/10\/08\/in-his-fourth-year-army-chief-expands-focus-from-readiness-to-modernization\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:40:16","slug":"in-his-fourth-year-army-chief-expands-focus-from-readiness-to-modernization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2018\/10\/08\/in-his-fourth-year-army-chief-expands-focus-from-readiness-to-modernization\/","title":{"rendered":"In his fourth year, Army chief expands focus from readiness to modernization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley has hardly made a single public statement in the past three years that didn\u2019t reiterate \u201creadiness\u201d<\/a> as his top priority. He wanted more soldiers to be in shape, better equipped<\/a> and at peak preparation<\/a> to deploy at any given time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back at his tenure and ahead to his retirement next year, Milley told Army Times in a Sept. 24 interview, the service has made huge progress on that front. Now, after breaking ground on Army Futures Command headquarters in Austin, Texas, the service is looking ahead to the technology it will need to fight a more sophisticated enemy than the insurgencies it\u2019s been steeped in for almost two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe two things that we set out at the beginning, one was readiness and the other was modernization, prepping the force of the future,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the constant was, you know, taking care of soldiers and families.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key factor in making all of it happen was a bigger budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe certainly didn\u2019t do it on our own,\u201d Milley said. \u201cCongress has been very generous in the amount of money that the Army has received for the past couple of budgets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boosts over the past couple of years \u201cstopped the bleeding,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn other words, we stopped this sort of downward trend that was occurring in the Army in terms of readiness, and we were on the mend,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more coverage from the AUSA annual meeting, click here.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manning<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army quadrupled its total ready-to-deploy brigades over the past year, Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson, the Army G-3\/5\/7, told the House Armed Services Committee in April, up from a low point of two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, one third of the service\u2019s 58 brigade combat teams are at that point, and the plan is to double that statistic in the active component by 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s an accurate assessment, that the Army is regaining readiness and lethality,\u201d Milley said. \u201cYou know, every week, every month, slowly \u2015 that\u2019s what we predicted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another factor has been the ramping down of operational tempo in Iraq and Afghanistan, which came with a total drawdown of end strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I first became the chief, people were actively talking about an army of 420,000, some were saying 400,000. Some were saying south of 400,000,\u201d Milley said. \u201cThose conversations, largely, are over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/atype-video-jwplayer>
The Department of the Army explains why they chose Austin for the newest command and how they are planning for the branch’s future.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Now the total Army is back up to over 1 million, but there are still holes in formations, even for units preparing for deployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOptimal strength, I would define as in excess of 90 percent. So if you are going to a major training event, a collective training event, ideally you want at least 90 percent of your assigned strength to go to that event,\u201d Milley said. \u201cSo we are not there yet, because we still have gaps and holes in many of our operations units, but there are fewer gaps and holes than there were 36 months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Training<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increased funding also means more training for units working their way back to full strength. Armor and mechanized forces are doing more gunnery, Milley said, while artillery units are doing more fires exercises and attack aviation units are getting in their own reps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAcross the board, across the entire Army, there has been a refocus,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are hitting the sled repeatedly over and over and over again. As a result of that, we are seeing the training, the skills, the knowledge, the attributes required to fight that kind of war is improving because they are getting more practice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brigades completed 19 rotations at the Army\u2019s combat training centers in 2018, and that number is slated for 20 next year. The ultimate goal, G-3\/5\/7\u2019s chief of training analysis Col. Dave Hudak told Army Times in May, would be as many as two rotations per year for every brigade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, units are still deploying in support of train-advise-assist missions against insurgents in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile select units, if they are tagged to specifically deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan, in a counterinsurgency environment, they will be focused on that specific environment,\u201d Milley said. \u201cBut the bulk of the Army now is back into the training for higher end type capabilities.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equipping<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combat deployments to fight insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan caused quite a bit of atrophy to much of the Army\u2019s more complex equipment, Milley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe put very little demand on spare parts for the heavier side of the Army \u2015 tanks, Bradley [Fighting Vehicles], even helicopters, for that matter, and other pieces of heavy equipment \u2015 because the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan were largely fought by forces that were, essentially, on the light side of the Army,\u201d he said. \u201cWe took many heavy units and converted them, like artillery units and air defense units and so on and so forth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now that the Army is looking toward more conventional warfare in the future, armored units are back, and so is the need from factories around the country to make those parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut there is a lag time in there for the manufacturers to produce the parts and then for them to get through the distribution system and so on,\u201d Milley said. \u201cThat is resolving itself right now as we speak. This past year, we have seen a significant increase in the operational readiness rates of equipment because the parts are flowing in now, but it took a year or two actually for Army Materiel Command and the civilian industrial base to go ahead and get that system energized again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modernization<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While those efforts are on track, the Army also stood up a four-star command to deal exclusively with six modernization areas and a handful of individual programs nested within them.<\/p>\n\n\n\t