WASHINGTON — Outgoing Army Secretary John McHugh said the service has no plans to slow down its plan and process to reduce the service's end-strength to 450,000 troops by the end of fiscal 2017.
"We are on track going forward to reach 450,000 in the stated time frame," McHugh said Monday at the Association of the United States Army exhibition. "It's always possible that will change," he noted.
McHugh also said the Army is tweaking its fiscal 2017 budget based on some of the emerging threats around the world. "The initiative for the Army in Eastern Europe is one that has caused us to kind of relook at our posture there, but also how to create rotational forces going forward," he said.
The Army, in listening to the combatant commander there and the secretary of defense about the best way on the way forward to support allies in the near term, in supporting allies, will provide that support largely through a rotational force, according to the secretary.
McHugh said the Army has submitted its portion of the FY-17 budget to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, "but we still have to go through the process, we still got a ways to go in the process and we will see how it works out."
New Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley added that he is actively engaged in the fall review of the budget and the Army's five-year plan with the defense secretary and the Army secretary.
"There have been a variety of international conditions that have emerged and we need to account for those and we will have pretty robust discussions now," and until the time the budget is submitted to the president.
Email: jjudson@defensenews.com
Twitter: @jenjudson
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.
