Inside the Army
While Army Chief Of Staff Gen. George Casey did not share any details of the fiscal year 2011 budget or the largely completed Quadrennial Defense Review, he did tell an audience last week he was satisfied with both.
“We worked very hard with the Department of Defense on both of those, and I’m pleased with the outcome of both of those,” Casey said at a Jan. 14 breakfast in Arlington, VA, hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army.
The Pentagon’s FY-11 budget, along with the QDR, will be sent to Congress at the beginning of February. Casey said there is continuity between Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ budget decisions for FY-10, the QDR’s findings and the FY-11 spending plan.
Of the QDR, Casey said it “recognizes the reality that we have to deal with the wars that we’re in.” In the FY-11 budget request, that translates to providing soldiers with the equipment they need in Iraq and Afghanistan, he added.
Casey also said the Army is on the same page with the QDR in how it views the future operational environment. “I think as the QDR comes out, you will see that [DOD] sees the strategic environment in much the same way that I have been describing it here for the last several years,” he said. “That we are, in fact, involved in a long-term ideological struggle against a global terrorist network and that we are in an era of persistent conflict. It doesn’t use the words, but the environment it describes is one of persistent conflict.”
The QDR outlines the capabilities the U.S. military will need in such an environment, according to Casey. “It goes far in talking about the need for flexible, adaptable forces,” he said.
Casey also listed some of the service’s priorities for the coming year, including a discussion of what mix of forces the Army will require during the next program objective memorandum cycle.
“Really what we need to do is have the intellectual discussion over the course of this year that will cause us to think through the changes we need to make in the Army for the [fiscal years 2012-2017] program, for the second decade of the 21st century,” said Casey. This includes looking at the mix of infantry, Stryker and heavy brigade combat teams, as well as the ratio of active, National Guard and Army Reserve forces and determining the right number of each, he added. -- Kate Brannen
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