The U.S. Army‘s top uniformed officer told a National Press Club audience in Washington Tuesday that the Army will likely not get back to a state of full readiness until 2020 because of sequestration cuts, Federal News Radio reported Wednesday.Jared Serbu writes that Gen. Ray Odierno told the audience that the two-year budget agreement gives the Army some relief in 2014 but readiness will still be an issue because training of brigades is reduced.
“Sequestration forces us to go right out of balance because I can’t take out people fast enough to get the dollars to put into readiness and modernization in order to keep that balance,” Odierno said, according to the report.
“And so what it’s created in the Army is about a three-year window, 2014, 2015, 2016, where we’re really out of balance,” he added.
Serbu reports the Army intends to go down from having 570,000 soldiers to 490,000 by 2015, two years ahead of original plans.
When complete, the Army will have 54 percent of its force representing the reserve component and the other 46 percent comprising of active duty soldiers, according to the report.
