PENTAGON chief Chuck Hagel is recommending shrinking the Army to its smallest size since the build-up to US involvement in World War II in an effort to balance postwar defence needs with budget realities, officials say.
Mr Hagel is expected to announce that and other recommendations on Monday in a speech at the Pentagon outlining his priorities for next year’s defence budget.
Army leaders have been saying for months that they expect their size would shrink as the nation prepares to end its combat role in Afghanistan this year.
The Army, which is the largest of the armed services, currently has 522,000 active-duty soldiers and is scheduled to shrink to 490,000 by 2015 from a wartime peak of 570,000.
Mr Hagel is expected to propose cutting it further to between 440,000 and 450,000.
Earlier this month, General Ray Odierno, Army chief of staff, told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations that an army of 420,000 would be too small for a world that has such an uncertain national security landscape.
The minimum size, he said, would be about 450,000.
He said shrinking to 420,000 would make a big difference in the capabilities of the force.
“I’m on the record saying, as a minimum, I think our end strength needs to be around 450,000; 330,000 in the active, 335,000 in the Guard, and about 195,000 in the US Army Reserve.
“And then we would be able to do it — at higher risk, but we should be able to do it,” he said.
The last time the active-duty Army was below 500,000 was in 2005, when it stood at 492,000.
Its post-World War II low was 480,000 in 2001, according to historical tables provided by the Army on Monday.
In 1940 the Army had 267,000 active-duty members, and it surged to 1.46 million the following year as the US approached entry into World War II.
