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US Army to cut 12 combat brigades, cut force size by 80,000 (2013 sequestration)

CougarKing

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The US DoD's C-castration, (COUGH!) I mean sequestration continues... 

Army to cut brigades at 10 US bases
Associated PressBy LOLITA C. BALDOR | Associated Press – 4 hrs ago


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army will eliminate at least 12 combat brigades, relocate thousands of soldiers and cancel $400 million in construction projects as the first wave of federal budget cuts takes aim at military communities around the country.

In a massive restructuring, Army leaders said Tuesday that they will slash the number of active duty combat brigades from 45 to 33, as the service moves forward with a longtime plan to cut the size of the service by 80,000. And they warned that more cuts — of as many as 100,000 more active duty, National Guard and Reserve soldiers — could be coming if Congress allows billions of dollars in automatic budget cuts to continue next year.

The sweeping changes would eliminate brigades — which number from 3,500 to 5,000 troops — at 10 Army bases in the U.S. by 2017, including those in Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, Colorado, North Carolina, New York, Kansas and Washington. The Army will also cut thousands of other jobs across the service, including soldiers in units that support the brigades, and two brigades in Germany have already been scheduled for elimination.

Gen. Ray Odierno, Army chief of staff, said one additional brigade will likely be cut, but no final decisions have been made.

"I know in the local communities it will have its impact," Odierno told reporters Tuesday. "But we've done our best to reach out to them so they understand what the impacts are. We've tried to make it as small an impact as possible for as many communities as we could."

Members of Congress, meanwhile, expressed concerns about the prospects for greater cuts down the road.

Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said his panel "will carefully examine the implications of this initial restructuring, but we all must understand that this is only the tip of the iceberg, much deeper cuts are still to come."

The Army is being reduced in size from a high of about 570,000 during the peak of the Iraq war to 490,000 as part of efforts to cut the budget and reflect the country's military needs as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan end. Odierno said that the potential 100,000 more would be spread out across the active duty, Guard and Reserves, and that there also could be reductions in the Army's 13 aviation brigades.

While the personnel cuts may have less impact at some of the Army's larger bases such as Fort Hood in Texas and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, they could be more painful for communities around some of the smaller installations such as Fort Knox, where currently only one brigade is based.

The other seven U.S. bases that will lose a brigade are: Fort Bliss in Texas, Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Fort Carson in Colorado, Fort Drum in New York, Fort Riley in Kansas, Fort Stewart in Georgia, and Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington. Soldiers in the deactivated brigades would be transferred to other units.

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These initial brigade cuts do not affect National Guard or Reserve units.

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A missing piece in this is that the remaining brigades will  be increased with the addition of a battalion.
 
There will be an additional manouvre battalion and some other enablers (fires) to each brigade.  I believe the deadline is sometime in 2017.  Huge impact on Command Select Lists - and that is being discussed elsewhere.

It is interesting to note that three of the brigades named are currently depoyed to RC(S).
 
Last time I checked we were still fighting a war.The venue is unknown at this time.Right now I can live with the deactivations of the 170th and 172d brigades. The economy sucks and there arent alot of jobs,for those that leave the Army.Take it slow.
 
MCG said:
A missing piece in this is that the remaining brigades will  be increased with the addition of a battalion.
So after reading through the article are they actually downsizing personnel, or as you state just moving those personnel around and keeping the same amount of PY's Army wide?
 
Canadian.Trucker said:
So after reading through the article are they actually downsizing personnel, or as you state just moving those personnel around and keeping the same amount of PY's Army wide?

WASHINGTON — Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, said Tuesday that the Army would institute the largest organizational change since World War II by eliminating combat forces from 10 bases across the United States, part of a planned reduction of 80,000 active-duty troops over the next five years. The announcement supports the Army’s effort to downsize the active-duty force to 490,000 as the military winds down from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/us/army-to-cut-its-forces-by-80000-in-5-years.html?_r=0
 
Canadian.Trucker said:
So after reading through the article are they actually downsizing personnel, or as you state just moving those personnel around and keeping the same amount of PY's Army wide?
They are reducing the force, but the reinforcement of the remaining brigades means that the cuts will be proportionately weighted against HQs as opposed to units.
 
Back to the future.We first grew the brigades by reducing 3 battalion brigades to 2 battalions.Now we are returning to the previous TOE.
 
Yep, 33 Brigades equals about 10 divisions and 3 Cav Regiments....looks pretty familiar....
 
MCG said:
They are reducing the force, but the reinforcement of the remaining brigades means that the cuts will be proportionately weighted against HQs as opposed to units.
Ack, thank you.
 
Related:

Army Times link

bilde

The flag of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, who were made famous as the 'Band of Brothers' in World War II, is seen on a wall on June 27 inside the museum at Fort Campbell, Ky. The 101st Airborne Division is trying to save its storied 506th Infantry Regiment from being eliminated under the Army's massive restructuring. (Kristin M. Hall / AP)

FORT CAMPBELL, KY. — The 101st Airborne Division is trying to save its illustrious 506th Infantry Regiment, whose origins date to World War II’s fabled “Band of Brothers,” from deactivation under the Army’s massive restructuring.

The Army announced this week that at least 12 combat brigades nationwide are to be eliminated by 2017 under sweeping military reductions, among them the 4th Brigade Combat Team at Fort Campbell, Ky.

The long-term reorganization seeks to reduce the Army’s size from a high of about 570,000 members at the peak of the Iraq war to 490,000 to shrink spending and reflect the country’s current military needs as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan end.

The brigade traces its lineage to the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, created in 1942.

The 506th was among several parachute regiments created to sneak behind enemy lines in the war. Nicknamed “Currahee,” which is a Native American Cherokee term for “stands alone,” the regiment parachuted into Normandy during the D-Day invasion in 1944. The regiment raced to liberate Europe amid bouts of fierce fighting in Bastogne, Belgium and then overran Hitler’s famed “Eagle’s Nest” in Germany.
 
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