{"id":26903,"date":"2021-04-20T14:00:50","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T14:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/04\/20\/us-army-bracing-for-fy22-budget-hit\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:19:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:19:46","slug":"us-army-bracing-for-fy22-budget-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2021\/04\/20\/us-army-bracing-for-fy22-budget-hit\/","title":{"rendered":"US Army bracing for budget hit next year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Army is bracing for a possible large budget cut in fiscal 2022,<\/a> a defense official told Defense News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service is preparing contingencies should it face a \u201chuge cut,\u201d which means the Army would potentially have to put modernization and readiness \u201cat risk,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army would need to look at ways to more effectively maintain readiness and would possibly have to slow-roll development and procurement schedules for major modernization efforts<\/a> the service sees as critical to deterring adversaries in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville has already said the service will not be able to grow its end-strength <\/a>should its budget stay level or shrink; more likely a force would remain at a level similar to the numbers now. The current troop count is about 486,000 in the active force and a little more than a million in the total force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen it comes to what chiefs have to grapple with in a budget, it\u2019s end strength and structure, it\u2019s readiness, and it\u2019s modernization. Those are the three kind of big resource buckets we have,\u201d Gen. James McConville said at the Association of the U.S. Army\u2019s Global Force Next symposium, held virtually last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service has also spent several years working a process<\/a> that has allowed the shifting of billions of dollars<\/a> from elsewhere in its budget into modernization efforts, but each year it gets tougher to find money to move over to priority programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\t