OCTOBER 15, 2024 — The Army’s goal of continuous transformation was on full display Oct. 14 at the kick off of the 70th Association of the U.S. Army Annual Meeting and Exposition at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.
Thousands of Soldiers, Department of the Army civilians and defense industry partners listened as Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth spoke about how the service is transforming in a complex world.
“Army leaders realized toward the end of the last decade that we needed to be prepared for a more dangerous future,” she said. “So, the Army began an institutional shift away from a focus on counterinsurgency and counterterrorism to preparing for large scale combat operations.”
“This shift was underway long before Russian tanks rolled into eastern Ukraine or Hamas invaded southern Israel,” she explained. “The world continues to grow more volatile, but the Army’s transformation is now coming to fruition.”
She pointed to three areas where the Army is seeing positive changes. The first being the transformation of weapons systems, where the service is modernizing air and missile defense units, replacing legacy radars and using new battle command systems to connect a wide range of sensors.
The Army is also modernizing its helicopters. Next year, the service will begin building prototypes for the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft. This platform will be the Army’s next generation tilt-rotor helicopter, meant to increase speed, range and maneuverability to attack enemy forces from long distances.
Wormuth said the aircraft will be ready for its first test flight in approximately 18 months.
Upgraded weapons systems are already making an impact for combatant commands as the Mid-Range Capability missile system completed a successful deployment to the Philippines during Salaknib 24, an annual bilateral exercise led by the Philippine Army and sponsored by the U.S. Army Pacific, earlier this year.
The land-based, ground-launched system can fire the Standard Missile 6 and the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile and strike targets more than 1,000 miles away.
“This weapon was only a blueprint four years ago,” Wormuth said. “Today, it is a reality.”
To prepare for large scale war, the second area the Army has been transforming is its force structure. The service is eliminating thousands of unfilled positions that were focused on counterinsurgency/counterterrorism and building new formations.
These units provide capabilities to current and future operations such as fire protection battalions, counter-small unmanned aerial systems batteries and Maneuver Short Range Air Defense. The first three multidomain task forces are up and running in the Indo-Pacific with the 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force participating in exercise Valiant Shield 24 in June.
During the exercise, the task force tested high-altitude balloons equipped with electromagnetic sensors as well as ultra-long-endurance unmanned systems and conducted a joint live fire with the Tennessee Army National Guard artillery unit.
“This exercise showed how the MDTF can use its intelligence, space, cyber and targeting capabilities to enable long range strikes against adversaries with considerable defensive capabilities, a must-do mission for the Army in the Indo-Pacific,” she explained. “All the new technology we’re bringing online, however quickly developed and procured, accomplishes little without the Soldiers and formations that do the fighting.”
Transforming the way the Army recruits those Soldiers is the other way the service has made impactful changes. The Army updated its recruiting curriculum and changed the way it selects and trains recruiters.
The service created two new military occupational specialties for talent acquisition with one for enlisted and one for warrant officers. The first group of 25 warrant officers completed their training in July and are now on the job providing data analytics and labor market research.
The enlisted talent acquisition specialists’ course is still being developed and the first Soldiers should be selected for the course by spring.
To provide additional support for recruits, the Army expanded the Future Soldier Preparatory Course at Fort Moore, Georgia, to include two additional companies. The course, which stood up in August 2022, helps Americans overcome academic and physical fitness barriers to service and meet or exceed the Army’s accession standards.
The Army also brough back the “Be All You Can Be” campaign to display the opportunities of service and to connect with prospective recruits. These changes led the Army to exceed its goal of 55,000 new Soldiers for fiscal year 2024.
“Our exceptional Army recruiters secured over 11,000 [Delayed Entry Program recruits], setting us up for another strong recruiting year in [fiscal year] 25,” she said. “I believe that our success this year shows the promise of what is just around the corner – complete transformation of our recruiting enterprise.”
Wormuth said the goal for this year is 61,000 recruits.
“This goal is ambitious, but [Gen. Randy George, chief of staff of the Army] and I believe it is achievable,” she explained. “I am excited about the results we have achieved – not only in our recruiting transformation, but in the transformation of our weapons systems and force structure that is so critical to maintaining our warfighting edge.”
During a media roundtable, Wormuth announced the creation of operational deployment pay for Soldiers on overseas deployments of more than 60 days. This will provide service members with $240 a month and will be retroactive to Oct. 1.
By Christopher Hurd
Army News Service