The secretary of defense has ordered the Army secretary to cut programs, reduce the number of general officers in the ranks and consolidate offices, commands and headquarters, including a four-star command formed in the previous Trump administration designed to reform its acquisition process.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to “implement a comprehensive transformation strategy, streamline its force structure, eliminate wasteful spending, reform acquisition, modernize inefficient defense contracts, and overcome parochial interests to rebuild our Army, restore the warrior ethos and reestablish deterrence,” he wrote in a memo published Wednesday.
“To build a leaner, more lethal force, the Army must transform at an accelerated pace by divesting outdated, redundant, and inefficient programs, as well as restructuring headquarters and acquisition systems,” Hegseth stated.
The Army should prioritize long-range precision fires and air and missile defense, including Golden Dome — Trump’s planned architecture to defend the homeland from missile threats — as well as cyber, electronic warfare and counter-space capabilities, the memo lists.
Chain-of-command changes
Much of the memo lays out initiatives already well underway, but the Army would carry them out under an altered chain-of-command structure with fewer general officers.
The changes include the merging of Forces Command with U.S. Army North and U.S. Army South into a single headquarters dubbed “the Western Hemisphere Command.”
And the Army is consolidating Army Futures Command, which is in charge of developing requirements, into one command with Training and Doctrine Command.
Army Futures Command was established in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first administration under then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, whom President Trump has sought to disgrace since returning to office, including by having Milley’s joint chiefs chairman portrait removed from the Pentagon hallway where it originally hung.
Milley proposed the four-star command he dubbed Army Futures Command as a new way forward, breaking free of the bureaucracy and silos that had hampered the Army’s previous major modernization efforts.
Working with other top service officials, Milley shifted billions of dollars into modernization programs including the top priority — long-range precision fires — and based the new command in Austin, Texas, an area known for its innovative, technology-focused workforce.
AFC was formed to focus on requirements development within the modernization process. Prior to its formation, the requirements development process lived within TRADOC, where it competed for attention alongside training, recruitment and professional military education. The more focused organization was built to enable the Army to move faster.
Hegseth’s memo also directs the Army secretary to restructure sustainment by “consolidating and realigning” headquarters and units within Army Materiel Command and integrating Joint Munitions Command and Army Sustainment Command “to optimize efficiency and streamline support capabilities.”
In a letter to the force from Driscoll published Thursday, he announced the Army plans to cut 1,000 staff positions from its headquarters.
Leaner, lethal formations
Hegseth is also ordering changes to formations with plans to “merge headquarters to generate combat power capable of synchronizing kinetic and non-kinetic fires, space-based capabilities and unmanned systems,” the memo states.
Major changes include reducing and restructuring manned attack helicopter formations and building up “inexpensive drone swarms capable of overwhelming adversaries,” it reads.
The Army in early 2024 killed the program to build a Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft after spending billions of dollars on it. Instead, the service decided to use drones for missions previously reserved for manned helicopters.
The Army plans to cancel its AH-65D production, its older model, in favor of a focus on the AH-64E version.
The memo says the Army will reduce and restructure its manned attack helicopter formations “and augment with inexpensive drone swarms capable of overwhelming adversaries.”
In his letter, Driscoll stated the Army will restructure aviation formations by reducing one Aerial Cavalry Squadron per Combat Aviation Brigade in the active component.
On the ground side, the Army will convert all Infantry Brigade Combat Teams to Mobile Brigade Combat Teams “to improve mobility and lethality in a leaner formation,” Driscoll writes.
The Army also plans to eliminate or “scale back” programs like manned aircraft, “outdated” UAVs and “excess” ground vehicles, such as Humvees, Hegseth’s memo states. Driscoll’s letter singles out Gray Eagle, its largest UAV, as being on the chopping block.
By 2027, the Army plans to bring online a long-range missile capable of striking moving land and maritime targets. Last year, the Army fielded the first increment of the Precision Strike Missile that could potentially reach ranges well over 500 kilometers. The service is also already developing a seeker that will make the PrSM capable of striking ships.
Every Division will have UAS and ground and air launched effects by the end of 2026, the memo states.
Every maneuver platoon will have counter-UAS capability by 2026, and every maneuver company will get the capability by 2027. The Army, which is in charge of the Joint Counter-UAS Office, or JCO, has been pushing to expand C-UAS capability across formations for several years.
The memo also requires AI-driven command-and-control to be implemented at the Theater, Corps and Division headquarter levels by 2027.
Operational units will get 3D printing and additive manufacturing capabilities by 2026.
Already underway for several years is an effort to modernize the organic industrial base when it comes to ramping up munitions supply, triggered by the war in Ukraine where the U.S. has sent large numbers of ammunition to the country to help it fight back the Russian invasion. The memo states the modernization effort will be fully operationally capable by 2028.
A focus on forward presence in the Indo-Pacific, the memo notes, will result in expanded pre-positioned stocks, rotational deployments and exercises with allies and partners.
Buy faster
In early 2024, the service, including then-Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, began talking about flexible funding to buy things like drones, counter-drone and electronic warfare capabilities in order to get the most capable technology rapidly.
The argument was that funding structures at the time resulted in slow acquisition of systems. By the time the service was ready to buy something, industry had already outpaced those capabilities with new technology.
Hegseth’s memo directs the service to consolidate budget lines and shift to capability-based funding across portfolios — specifically calling out unmanned aircraft systems, counter-UAS and EW.
The Army will also pursue obtaining the rights to repair its systems where industry intellectual property ownership currently prevents it. In addition, the service will ensure that right-to-repair provisions exist in all new contracts.
The service will also “expand” its use of Other Transaction Authority agreements, a mechanism provided by Congress to rapidly build prototypes. The Army has relied heavily on OTAs in recent years.
According to Driscoll, the Army’s new “transformation initiative” builds upon the Army chief’s Transformation in Contact initiative he began over a year ago. The initiative focuses on moving programs through acquisition faster, including adding UAS into formations and speeding up the fielding of a modernized Abrams tanks and a Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft, among other programs like countering drones.
“This is a first step,” Driscoll writes. “We have already directed a second round of transformation efforts to be delivered in the coming months.”
Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.
