The Army is facing an ongoing drawdown, continued budget cuts and fiscal uncertainty, all of which paint an ominous picture against a backdrop of unpredictable threats worldwide, according to the Army's top civilian official.
"I don't know about you, but I didn't foresee the United States Army being the foundational force to fight the Ebola outbreak in west Africa," Army Secretary John McHugh said Oct. 12 at the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting and exposition in Washington, D.C. "I don't think we fully understood the rapid pace of expansion of terrorist cells throughout parts of Africa…we really didn't plan for Putin's what I'll call 'ventures' in Crimea in eastern Ukraine, causing major security disruptions throughout much of Europe. We sure didn't see ISIL."
The Army has responded to each of these situations despite a shady fiscal environment, but it won't be sustainable to continue to do so, McHugh emphasized.
Unpredictable funding from Congress, including continuing resolutions and sequestration, "eroded our readiness and reduced our force structure and cut critical modernization efforts," McHugh said. "The fact of the matter is not once during my [nearly seven years] as secretary has the Department of Defense received a budget on time. Not once."
McHugh, who said previously he would step down by November, urged Congress to quickly confirm current Acting Under Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning as his successor.
The Army currently has deployed roughly 180,000 soldiers supporting combatant command requirements in 140 locations worldwide, but those figures belie a grimmer picture. Readiness levels now hover around 30 percent instead of the standard 60 percent or more, and the budget already has seen 17 percent in cuts with more potentially coming, McHugh noted.
The result is an uncertain future for the Army — a future that could provide critical U.S. capabilities, or one that is "much darker, more dangerous…based on ill-conceived notions on the nature of war," he said.
McHugh warned against "a growing discussion in this town that questions the need for an army at all," he said. "It's a posture seemingly based on what I would call a grossly naïve view of the geopolitical environment, perspective rooted in unsupported optimism, which would shape our force for a world as we wished it were, rather than the perilous reality we truly face at this moment."
