Army may cut 10 brigade combat teams - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Army may cut 10 brigade combat teams

The Army may cut 10 of its 45 active-duty brigade combat teams as it works to meet President Obama’s order to slice defense spending, said an Army official familiar with the budget deliberations.

This is one of many proposals being considered as the Army goes through a series of budget drills before the Defense Department delivers a plan in October to cut its budget by at least $400 billion.

Service leaders are still discussing how many Stryker, heavy or infantry BCTs might get cut and when.

The Army has already announced plans to reduce its end strength by 27,000 starting in 2015, and has set lower recruiting goals to prepare for those cuts. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff, has said the service plans to cut out the temporary 22,000-solider increase that started in 2009 for the Afghanistan surge by 2012.

Subtracting 10 BCTs would fall in line with this plan, said the official, who asked to remain anonymous since discussions are ongoing.

The proposal to cut the number of BCTs doesn’t come as a surprise. The Army chief of staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, soon to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, studied the idea when he ran his service’s Training and Doctrine Command. He ordered a study that found the Army could benefit from adding maneuver units and expanding BCTs while cutting 10 from the total number.

Monday’s edition of Army Times will contain more details on the budget cutting proposals.

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