{"id":47924,"date":"2019-10-21T02:36:38","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T02:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/10\/21\/army-is-flexing-muscle-it-hasnt-used-much-in-18-years-top-leader-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:06:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:06:03","slug":"army-is-flexing-muscle-it-hasnt-used-much-in-18-years-top-leader-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2019\/10\/21\/army-is-flexing-muscle-it-hasnt-used-much-in-18-years-top-leader-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Army is flexing muscle it hasn\u2019t used much in 18 years, top leader says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Army intends to train at the division level in its next major exercises in Europe<\/a> and the Indo-Pacific<\/a>, testing the movement of a large force from fort to port, across the ocean and then making its way to multi-national sites where partner forces will train with the Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy<\/a> said that the Defender 2020 exercise held in Europe from April to May will be similar in size and scope to Exercise Reforger<\/a>, a Cold War-era strategic deployment of a division or more to West Germany in annual iterations. It is set to be one of the largest military exercises on that continent since the Cold War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the service is also staring down the barrel of some of its modernization initiatives, sometimes making hard choices to ensure continued funding through its \u201cnight court\u201d process, as well as pushing the programs to completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCarthy talked with Army Times ahead of the Association of the United States Army annual gathering this year to discuss the challenges ahead. The Q&A has been edited for length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there any big announcements coming from Army leaders this year?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of what you\u2019ll hear is that we intend to finish what we started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve had a very aggressive transformation in our modernization enterprise. We have 31 signature systems that we\u2019re investing in. We changed our PT test. We\u2019ve dramatically improved readiness. What you\u2019ll hear a lot of is that you primed the pump over the last two years with research and development of weapons systems, we\u2019ve reduced the span of time that it takes to get a requirement codified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have prototypes landing all over those portfolios. What you have to do now is you have to finish. You got to grind through these prototypes, you got to experiment with them and you got to make a decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we get this budget deal, and we\u2019re going to fight for it, we get four years in a row of focused, appropriate investment levels against a disciplined modernization approach. So it won\u2019t be as fancy, as exciting as maybe you think, of two years ago when we were announcing this or that. But this is finishing what we started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I have only 17 months in this job, that\u2019s 17 months of just pushing against what we\u2019ve started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do Defender 2020 and other big exercises on the horizon mean for the Army?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s been a much greater emphasis over the last, call it a year to maybe close to 18 months, on the emergency deployment readiness exercises, as well as Defender-level series exercises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s exercising that muscle that we haven\u2019t used a lot over the last 18 years, of deploying strategic-level projection capabilities from home station in less than two weeks from notification. To have a unit on the ground in Europe from Texas and they\u2019re doing a live-fire alongside their Polish or Romanian counterparts, we haven\u2019t done that in a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re doing it now and everyone of these repetitions they\u2019re getting better, they\u2019re getting faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\t